Category: Class Assignments

Causal Theories for the Great Depression

By: Jonathan Wanzer ORCiD 0009-0004-9275-7410
Submitted on: February 19, 2026
Submitted to: Dr. Cervantez – Liberty University
Course: HIUS 713 American Entrepreneurship Since 1900
Chicago Citation:
Wanzer, Jonathan. “Causal Theories for the Great Depression.” Historical Interpretations (blog). February 19, 2026. http://wanzer.org/2026/02/causal-theories-for-the-great-depression/.

Abstract
This article opens a discussion on the causes of the Great Depression. It opens with the two most recognizable precipitating events often thought of as causes. It places them rightly as the visible symptoms of the existing conditions. In a discussion of contributing factors, it looks at several causal theories and the ways they are connected. It ends with several factors present in the recovery period and a statement on the complexity of the economics involved.

Introduction

The prompt for this assignment is to “produce a cohesive narrative and analysis using primary and secondary sources applying one economic theory to the causes of the Great Depression and its ultimate demise.” (emphasis added) Applying one economic theory as the cause of of the Great Depression is like asking “what was the cause of World War II?” The only single answer that makes any sense is World War I was the cause of World War II. There are to many factors, and it depends on the perspective of the observer. With that in mind, the only rational answer to the question posed would be the economics of the Gilded Age. This takes a lot factors into consideration, many of those factors are tangled in the events that unfolded, both in the precipitating events and the contributing factors. For the sake of presentation in this article, the primary factors involved will fall into one of three categories, Precipitating Events, Contributing Factors, and Recovery.

Precipitating Events

The Stock Market Crash of October 24-29, 1929 is most frequently considered one of the two precipitating events that pushed the United States into the Great Depression, the second being the runs on the banks from 1929 to 1933. While these may have been the outward symptoms, brought on by the massive loss of wealth of the rich and the middle class. They were just symptoms of a fragile economy that developed through the Gilded Age. The middle class was relatively new to market investing and more easily spooked by fluctuations. The panic of these new participants destabilized the typical oscillations of the market creating wider swings up and down inducing further panic. Not helping matters, the general population was aware of how the typical bank operates internally, or how the money stock is utilized locally or nationally.

Contributing Factors

Over investment theories place responsibility on capital over investment by business created a bubble that was unsustainable. Business needed fewer workers as it improved production mechanically by taking on more debt. Fewer jobs and a surplus of workers lowered wages. The country was new to the mass consumer economy, as the job market shrank and incomes dropped, consumers had to reduce personal spending. This let to lower than expected sales for businesses which let to businesses having to contract further to keep up with their debt. This also led to a rapid decline in consumer confidence which contracted consumer spending. So the downward spiral went. Keynesian Theory puts the responsibility on consumer confidence and contracted spending for the contraction of production and the resultant unemployment. Some theorists place responsibility on income disparity, with wealth pooling at the upper class, claiming their contraction as they saw considerable losses in the markets as the cause of further losses. The Product Surplus theory places responsibility on the advancements in technology and capital investments that led to over production, citing the glut as cause for declining prices and profits, leading to lay-offs and contraction. These theories all tie together creating a business-consumer view of what was occurring, but even this was only part of the picture. Much of the remaining picture has to do with the economic controls, or the lack their of.

Monetarist theory places responsibility with poor federal monetary policies and the Federal Reserves failures to act or acting inappropriately by not maintaining the money supply and raising interest rates respectively. Protectionism also played a role, the federal government’s institution of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff in 1930. At the depressions peek, the U.S. economy had shrunk 30%, the global economy had shrunk 60% due to Smoot-Hawley. Some theories include the labor pool that had grown through various mechanisms. The labor pool was fare to large with unemployment growing to over 25% at its peek in 1933 and diminishing wages.

Unemployment Rate for the United States
National Bureau of Economic Research

The 1920s saw increases in the cost of goods during the boom before the bust, also with little government engagement. Prices would not drop significantly until 1930.

Index of the General Price Level of the United States
National Bureau of Economic Research

Recovery

Several things brought about the recovery period, one was the influx of foreign money being transferred to the United States, specifically, foreign gold. As the global economy sank lower than the U.S. economy, assets of overseas wealthy people was transferred to reduce the overall loss. This had a positive effect on the U.S. economy. Prices were beginning to recover, clinched purses were opening, banks still in business began to make loans again. It is important to remember that over 7,000 banks went under from 1929 to 1933. As spending and lending rose, so did employment. A significant portion of this is due to the Works Progress Administration (WPA), part of the New Deal. Many cities still have monuments to the success of the WPA in the form of buildings funded by the WPA. Many of these buildings are in the Art Deco/WPA style. World War II closed out the era with mass employment and government war contracts.

Conclusion

This article is a gross simplification of the complex nature of the Great Depression. Its causes are rooted in the boom of the Gilded Age and poor government over site, planning, and a slow response to the economic crises as they occurred. There are also many other smaller contributing factors not mentioned here.

Sources

McElvaine, Robert S. The Great Depression: America, 1929-1941. Times Books, 1993.

National Bureau of Economic Research, Unemployment Rate for United States [M0892AUSM156SNBR], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M0892AUSM156SNBR, February 17, 2026.

National Bureau of Economic Research, Index of the General Price Level for United States [M04051USM324NNBR], retrieved from FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis; https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/M04051USM324NNBR, February 17, 2026.

Wheelock, David. “Why Do We Still Study the Great Depression?.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, (video, 5:55). Accessed February 17, 2026, https://www.stlouisfed.org/the-great-depression/curriculum/economic-episodes-in-american-history-part-1

Wheelock, David. “Key Economic Terms.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, (video, 7:03). Accessed February 17, 2026, https://www.stlouisfed.org/the-great-depression/curriculum/economic-episodes-in-american-history-part-2.

Wheelock, David. “How Bad Was the Great Depression? Economic Impact.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, (video, 3:06). Accessed February 17, 2026, https://www.stlouisfed.org/the-great-depression/curriculum/economic-episodes-in-american-history-part-3.

Wheelock, David. “The Great Recession vs. the Great Depression.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, (video, 6:25). Accessed February 17, 2026, https://www.stlouisfed.org/the-great-depression/curriculum/economic-episodes-in-american-history-part-4.

Wheelock, David. “What Caused the Great Depression.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, (video, 9:59). Accessed February 17, 2026, https://www.stlouisfed.org/the-great-depression/curriculum/economic-episodes-in-american-history-part-5.

Wheelock, David. “The Role of Bank Failures and Panics.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, (video, 11:33). Accessed February 17, 2026, https://www.stlouisfed.org/the-great-depression/curriculum/economic-episodes-in-american-history-part-6.

Wheelock, David. “Where Was the Fed?.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, (video, 6:48). Accessed February 17, 2026, https://www.stlouisfed.org/the-great-depression/curriculum/economic-episodes-in-american-history-part-7.

Wheelock, David. “What Caused the Recovery?.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, (video, 3:47). Accessed February 17, 2026, https://www.stlouisfed.org/the-great-depression/curriculum/economic-episodes-in-american-history-part-8.

Wheelock, David. “Lessons Learned and Concluding Remarks.” Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, (video, 3:01). Accessed February 17, 2026, https://www.stlouisfed.org/the-great-depression/curriculum/economic-episodes-in-american-history-part-9.

Robert McCormick and the Chicago Tribune

By: Jonathan Wanzer ORCiD 0009-0004-9275-7410
Submitted on: February 11, 2026
Submitted to: Dr. Cervantez – Liberty University
Course: HIUS 713 American Entrepreneurship Since 1900
Chicago Citation:
Wanzer, Jonathan. “Robert McCormick and the Chicago Tribune.” Historical Interpretations (blog). February 11, 2026. http://wanzer.org/2026/02/robert-mccormick-and-the-chicago-tribune/.

Abstract
This post discusses the life of Robert Rutherford McCormick and his ascendance to President of the Chicago Tribune. It includes his youth and major life events. It provides some insight into his military service. It outlines his newspaper industry experience. The article concludes with his legacy in the newspaper and media industry.

Robert Rutherford McCormick, also known as The Colonel or Colonel McCormick, a rank he earned in the U.S. Army, was born in Chicago, IL, on July 30, 1880, the second son of US Ambassador Robert Sanderson McCormick and Katherine Medill McCormick, daughter of Joseph Medill, who, with five partners, bought the Chicago Tribune in 1855. When he was 9, his father was serving in the diplomatic corps in London. It is in this period that he taught himself to sail and developed his strong sense of self and self-confidence. He had a strong will and exhibited an adventurous spirit. Back in the States, he attended the Groton prep school, where he was described as above average but lacking in motivation. Despite the apparent lack of motivation, he did well enough to get into Yale, where he found his motivation. He was also able to exercise his adventurous nature in hunting in the Hudson Bay area with Inuit guides. Back in Chicago after graduating from Yale in 1903, he decided to go to law school at Northwestern.

This was also a period of political exploration for Robert. Elected as an Alderman and president of the Chicago Sanitary District. He was known for his platform of honest government and willingness to dig in and do the difficult work and not tolerating political hacks on his staff. His conservative views would continue throughout his life, generally opposed to progressives, the New Deal, and the U.S. entry into WWII.

In 1906, his future was on shifting sands. His older brother, Medill, had a nervous breakdown. Medill had been groomed to take over the Tribune at some point. In 1910, Medill and Robert’s uncle, Robert Patterson, editor-in-chief and president of the Tribune, died. The uncertainty of the newspaper’s management put the future of the Tribune in jeopardy. The board was even considering selling the Tribune. In 1911, Robert Rutherford McCormick took the reins of the Tribune, calming the board and stabilizing the business.

Now in his thirties, Robert married Amy Irwin Adams in 1915. True to his adventurous spirit and patriotism, the young couple’s honeymoon would not be a typical one. The couple toured war-torn Europe with Robert writing about the experience along the way. Later that year, home from Europe, Robert felt he needed to do more for his country and enlisted in the Illinois National Guard. He was deployed to protect the southern border to protect the country from Pancho Villa’s raids. In 1917, he signed up for the American Expeditionary Forces and served in France. He earned his Colonel rank in 1918 and a Distinguished Service Medal in 1923, staying a reservist until 1929.

Robert R. McCormick became the sole editor-in-chief in 1925 and would lead the Tribune for five decades, building a media empire including three major papers, the Chicago Tribune, Washington Times-Herald, and New York Daily News, a radio station WGN (1924), and a TV station, also with the WGN callsign (1948). The callsigns stood for World’s Greatest Newspaper, showing his enthusiasm and dedication. The Tribune was a paragon of an institution. Its employees were among the highest paid. They respected the Colonel, and he, in return, respected them. McCormick went to great lengths to ensure the success of the Tribune Company, the parent company that ran the various media outlets, engaging in forestry, buying paper mills, investing in hydroelectric, and shipping companies to provide support services and distribution.

Robert R. McCormick was a leader in the field of journalism, and under his direction, the Tribune would have the largest circulation of all American standard-sized newspapers. It would also lead the world in newspaper advertising revenue. His editorials were known for expressing his conservative journalistic integrity. He was an adamant defender of the First Amendment and Freedom of the Press. One of his primary goals as a journalist was to lay the foundation for journalism to become a bona fide profession. To that end, he introduced the concept of higher education in journalism and helped establish Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism and provided initial and ongoing funding for the school.

In 1939, the Colonel’s wife, Amy, died. He remarried in 1944 to a close friend of Amy’s, Maryland Mathison Hooper. The Colonel died on April 1, 1955, in Wheaton, Illinois, at the age of 74, survived by his second wife, Mary. Robert Rutherford McCormick was a publisher, editor, media pioneer, war hero, explorer, public servant, civic leader, attorney, and a true philanthropist. He established the Robert R. McCormick Charitable Trust, which turned his 500-acre estate, Cantigny, named after the village, where he served in France in WWI, into a funded public park. The trust also funds early childhood education programs in Chicago and community programs in the South and West sides of Chicago.

Robert R. McCormick was a privileged man. Born into a generationally wealthy family, well-traveled, and well-educated, he held conservative values and a strong work ethic, a sense of duty and responsibility to his family, his country, and his community.

Sources

Gies, Joseph. The Colonel of Chicago: A Biography of the Chicago Tribune’s Legendary Publisher, Colonel Robert McCormick. Dutton Adult. 1979

Olmsted, Kathryn S. The Newspaper Axis: Six Press Barons Who Enabled Hitler. Yale University Press. 2022.

“Our Benefactor.” Robert R. McCormick Foundation, website. Accessed February 10, 2026, https://www.mccormickfoundation.org/about-us/our-benefactor/.

“Robert R. McCormick.” Britannica, website. Accessed February 10, 2026, https://www.britannica.com/biography/Robert-R-McCormick.

Robert R. McCormick. Personal Correspondence, 1920-1955, I-63. Charles Deering McCormick Library of Special Collections. https://findingaids.library.northwestern.edu/repositories/7/resources/1474 Accessed February 10, 2026.

“Robert R. McCormick Biography.” First Division Museum at Cantigny, website. Accessed February 10, 2026, https://www.fdmuseum.org/researchers/robert-r-mccormick-biography/.

Smith, Richard Norton. The Colonel: The Life and Legend of Robert R. McCormick. C-SPAN video, 1:05:06. https://www.c-span.org/program/public-affairs-event/life-and-legend-of-robert-r-mccormick/65204.

World War I, Newspapers, and the CPI

By: Jonathan Wanzer ORCiD 0009-0004-9275-7410
Submitted on: January 30, 2026
Submitted to: Dr. Cervantez – Liberty University
Course: HIUS 713 American Entrepreneurship Since 1900
Chicago Citation:
Wanzer, Jonathan. “World War I, Newspapers, and the CPI.” Historical Interpretations (blog). January 30, 2026. http://wanzer.org/2026/01/world-war-i-newspapers-and-the-cpi/.

Abstract
This post provides a brief history of the newspaper industry. It covers industry growth through the Gilded Age. It introduces George Creel and his relationship with Woodrow Wilson. The creation of the Committee on Public Information. How CPI and Creel disseminated information and sold America on joining the war in Europe. It concludes with the industry recovering post-war.

Postbellum America was experiencing dramatic changes in all areas of life. The newspaper industry was no different; the period from 1830 to 1930 is often referred to as the Golden Age of American newspapers, and many of the industry’s greatest changes in this period took place between 1880 and 1900. Technology improvements introduced mass production presses, faster communication, and broader reach, all of which served the industry’s need to expand and interconnect. The introduction of the penny-press publishing model, the development and rapid growth of newspaper chains, and the consolidation of chains into empires, exemplified by Joseph Pulitzer and William Randolph Hearst, all contributed to the industry’s expansion in this period. Other models were also taking form in this period, such as yellow journalism. Sensationalism, hyperbole, and exaggeration were regular features of the newspaper industry. At the same time, professionalization in journalism and muckraking became growing parts of the industry.

Sensationalism, hyperbole, and exaggeration have always been part of the press. What distinguishes this period is the motivation behind it. While most newspapers had been funded by political parties before this time, they were now commercial interests tied only to the owner’s political interests. Newspapers were just as likely to attack either party if they could sell more papers. If money was coming in, editors would have greater latitude. Professionalism was starting to take root, bringing about the muckrakers, what we would now call investigative journalists. These muckrakers were also given some freedom in whom they went after, especially if it was likely to sell more papers. While politics was still a motivating factor in the media, the economics of the business were of greater concern. The media’s acceptance of sensationalism and hyperbole would set the stage for its usefulness in propaganda dissemination.

George Creel (1876-1953) began his career in the press in 1896 at the Kansas City World as a reporter. He would work at many newspapers and own several before his involvement with Woodrow Wilson’s (1886-1924) re-election campaign in 1916. He had been a Wilson supporter for a while when he met Wilson in 1912, and they had had several conversations on politics and the press before 1916. As a newsman, Creel was well-versed in advertising and the nascent practice of managing public perceptions, which we now recognize as the field of Public Relations. Creel and Wilson would have several conversations during the 1916 campaign where Creel promoted a way to sell the American people on joining the war in Europe. A key part of this would involve the media distribution channel with the greatest reach, newspapers. Several of Wilson’s cabinet members proposed a full media blackout and imposed censorship. Creel advised Wilson, proposing no blackout or censorship, instead, the government would create a clearinghouse that would clear and disseminate government information and requests for information. The press would be expected to sign an agreement that they would submit any articles even tangentially related to the war effort for clearance, and in exchange, they would have a firehose of information to drink from, all pre-cleared through this clearinghouse. With only a few dissenters, mostly in the War Department, Creel’s plan was accepted, and by Executive Order 2594, the Committee on Public Information was formed on April 13, 1917, just seven days after America joined the war in Europe.

The Committee on Public Information (CPI) had two primary responsibilities: to manage and clear for dissemination all information outside of military channels and to the public on the United States involvement in the war in Europe, and to sell the American population on the war. In two weeks after the establishment of the CPI, George Creel had reached out to his media contacts, establishing contact with newspaper owners and editors across the nation to get them to sign agreements with the CPI to clear all internally generated stories. Many of the owners and editors were skeptical about the “article clearance” being just another form of censorship, and they weren’t sure that the CPI could serve so many outlets. By the end of May, a large majority of newspapers had signed the agreement, and the CPI was generating hundreds of articles per day. As the CPI expanded in the weeks to come, it established regional offices around the country to clear articles, provide pre-cleared articles, and generate pre-cleared articles of local and regional interest. In just a couple of months, the CPI was generating thousands of articles a day. They were so successful that the CPI’s scope was expanded on September 25, 1917, to establish divisions for pictures, films, and other publications.

Early in the CPI’s existence, it was outputting thousands of columns of news per day, and it was by far the largest news organization in the country. The content it produced was for the end consumers of news, the American people. It could have become a state-run news organization, which was recognized by the media moguls and small paper owners of the day. They had a few options, but the only option that would not negatively affect their bottom line was to work with the CPI. CPI provided massive amounts of content that could effectively go straight to typesetting. They also had a large variety of topics to choose from. A paper could produce an entire issue from CPI-generated columns alone. Most papers continued to generate content internally, but the volume was considerably reduced, subsequently reducing newsroom costs, all while increasing circulation to wartime readers. Most businesses that bought ad space continued to advertise, though they tended to lean towards patriotic themes in their advertising. After the war, the CPI was abolished in August 1919. At this time, the Associated Press, which was founded in 1846, took its pre-CPI place as the largest news gathering organization in America.

Sources

  • Axelrod, Alan. Selling the Great War: The Making of American Propaganda. Palgrave Macmillan, 2009.
  • Creel, George. How We Advertised America: The First Telling of the Amazing Story of the Committee on Public Information That Carried the Gospel of Americanism to Every Corner of the Globe. Harper & Brothers, 1920.
  • Creel, George. Rebel at Large: Recollections of Fifty Crowded Years. G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1947.
  • Kingsbury, Celia Malone. For Home and Country: World War I Propaganda on the Home Front. University of Nebraska Press, 2010.
  • Schudson, Michael. Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers. Basic Books, 1978.
  • Smythe, Ted Curtis. The Gilded Age Press, 1865-1900. Praeger, 2003.