The Great Depression There has only been one depression in the history of the United States of America. There were a few other instances throughout the nineteenth century, which lasted in periods of 20 years, known as recessions, none were anyway as severe as the one suffered in the 1930s which was known as a depression. President Herbert Hoover used the term depression instead of panic because he found the term to be less frightful and explained exactly what happened during the months that followed the crash of October 1929. He said that the American economy was like a highway, in which small crashes could be easily fixed, but he was