Question

1. What was the Harlem Renaissance, and what were some of its key characteristics?
2. Discuss the causes of the Great Depression. What policies did Herbert Hoover attempt in trying to combat the effects on America?

Answer 1

Harlem Renaissance:

The Harlem Renaissance was the development of the Harlem neighborhood in New York City as a black cultural mecca in the early 20th Century and the subsequent social and artistic explosion that resulted. Lasting roughly from the 1910s through the mid-1930s, the period is considered a golden age in African American culture, manifesting in literature, music, stage performance and art.

Characteristics:

1) After World War I Harlem became a thriving center of African American culture. The Harlem Renaissance (c. 1918–37) was the most influential movement in African American literary history.

2)The Harlem Renaissance was unusual among literary and artistic movements for its close relationship to civil rights and reform organizations. During this time Black artists began to take control of how Black culture was being represented.

3)The Harlem Renaissance was also greatly inspired by African American journals that published short pieces by promising writers. These journals included the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’sThe Crisis and the National Urban League’s Opportunity.

Causes of Great Depression are :

1)Stock Market Crash of 1929

2)The effects of the stock market crash rippled throughout the economy. Nearly 700 banks failed in waning months of 1929 and more than 3,000 collapsed in 1930.

3)With people's investments worthless, their savings diminished or depleted, and credit tight to nonexistent, spending by consumers and companies alike ground to a standstill. As a result, workers were laid off en masse. In a chain reaction, as people lost their jobs, they were unable to keep up with paying for items they had bought through installment plans

4)The economic devastation of the Great Depression was made worse by environmental destruction(drought).

Herbert Hoover Attempt:

In 1929, the stock market crash catalyzed the onset of the Great Depression. Though Hoover has gained a reputation for dithering in the face of economic peril, his administration actually pursued measures that helped lay the basis for Roosevelt’s New Deal. Hoover launched a massive public works program, part of which included funding for construction of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River. His administration implemented stronger protections for labor and substantially increased federal subsidies for agriculture.

Hoover also played a key role in passing the Glass-Steagall Act of 1932, which limited the activities of commercial banks in an attempt to stabilize the banking sector.

However, many of these policies were not immediately effective, and some of the administration’s actions actually worsened the effects of the depression.

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