The Great Depression began with a stock market crash in the United States and eventually struck almost every country in the world. In the United States, millions of workers lost their jobs and large numbers of farmers had to abandon their farms. Poverty swept through the nation on a scale never before experienced. Thousands of banks failed and foreign trade decreased sharply. Hundreds of thousands of Americans lost their life savings because of the bank failures. Many people stood in "bread lines" and went to "soup kitchens" to get food provided by charities.<NP> President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried to bring the country out of the depression with a program called the New Deal. The New Deal included relief for farmers, aid to manufacturing firms, the regulation of banks, and public works projects to provide jobs. The New Deal helped relieve hardship. But hard times dragged on until military spending stimulated the economy during World War II (1939-1945).
