| the economic crisis and period of low business activity in the U.S. and other countries, roughly beginning with the stock-market crash in October, 1929, and continuing through most of the 1930s. |
The great slowdown in the American economy, the worst in the country's history, which began in 1929 and lasted until the early 1940s. Many banks and businesses failed, and millions of people lost their jobs. (See Dust Bowl; fireside chats; Hoovervilles; New Deal; Okies; Franklin D. Roosevelt; and stock market Crash of 1929.)