People's Century: 1900-1999

1929: Breadline (1x7)

Fecha de emisión: Nov 01, 1995

The economic boom of the roaring twenties comes to a sudden halt in 1929 and the subsequent Great Depression. In the years after, a demoralised army of 13 million unemployed Americans are left idle. As incomes and trade are reduced, the recession spreads to the Jarrow shipyards and the nitrate and copper mines of Chile. In afflicted countries there are attentive audiences to solutions proffered by the extreme left and right to fixing a problem apparently caused by the market economy, although Sweden adopts a novel approach through establishing the welfare state. President Hoover's crackdown on the Bonus Army, a large group of protesting unemployed veterans in Washington, leads to his political demise. His replacement, President Roosevelt, confronts the problem by initiating ambitious public works programs, which helps stimulate the economy. Britain's economy comes out of recession in the late 1930s, thanks to the need to build up its Navy against a looming threat from Germany. One legacy of the breadline is that people will now demand action from their governments to intervene in the market. The opening scene shows the Wall Street crash.