ABSTRACT

The American Dream and capitalism itself would be tested during the Depression. Unemployment shot up from an average of 3 percent during the 1920s to nearly 25 percent in 1933, and did not return to single-digit levels until the United States entered World War II.1 With no social safety net (no unemployment insurance, and no Federal Deposit Insurance when thousands of banks failed and people lost their savings), Americans had every reason to doubt the notion that hard work would yield success. Millions had worked hard and had seen their circumstances improve, only to lose everything through no fault of their own.