The economic expansion of the 1920's brought wealth to Americans unevenly. At the end of the decade, even while the stock market soared, American farmers were facing hard times. Production peaked in the middle of 1929 and began to decline. The overheated stock market crashed in October.
Many people, including President Herbert Hoover and Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon felt that the business cycle would soon correct itself, as had happened in the past. Instead, the crisis worsened. In 1932, Americans rejected the Republican Party and elected Franklin Delano Roosevelt as President of the United States. Roosevelt began a New Deal, which he launched during the Hundred Days in 1933. Programs like the Civilian Conservation Corps brought jobs to some of the unemployed. The economy appeared to rebound and Franklin Delano Roosevelt was re-elected in 1936 by the largest electoral landslide since George Washington. However, the economy fell again in 1937 and did not fully return to prosperity until World War II.
