Historians have identified several different causes of the Great Depression, including: the stock market crash of 1929, the purchasing of stocks on margin, the wide income gap between the wealthy and the poor, the loss of consumer spending, the failure of banks to deal with the crisis, protectionism and the weather conditions of the American Midwest.

The New Deal in the Great Depression was economic program introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and had a profound impact on the lives of millions of Americans.