After the Roaring Twenties, when business boomed and people thought the future looked bright, the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, seemed a minor problem that would quickly remedy itself. America had suffered hard times before; most Americans thought the economy would soon turn around so people could get on with life. The Great Depression (1929–41) thus came as a huge surprise to most people. Of a population of 122 million in 1930, 750,000 people were laid off without pay and another 2.4 million capable workers had no jobs at all. America was definitely.....