意外产生的超级大国(10)

But for Americans of the time Black Thursday marked the official beginning of the Great Depression.

Unlike the American civil war, which took its toll mostly on the military, their families and those poor souls who had the war fought in their backyard, the Great Depression deeply affected every American in one way or another.

The United States' woes either triggered or echoed, depending on how one looks at it, a world wide economic deflation and a great hike in unemployment.

In Germany, already battered by the Treaty of Versailles, economic disaster made Hitler's demented drivel sound appealing.

America's survival of the Great Depression is a tribute to the inspired leadership of president Franklin Delano Roosevelt, but it is much more a tribute to the American people's native resilience and hard work.

America's isolationist streak, already well established in the run up to the First World War, re-emerged with a vengeance through the early 1930's.

Fix America first and forget about the rest of the world and avoid those foreign entanglements.