Hello and welcome to this day in esoteric political history from Radiotopia.

My name is Jody Avergan.

This day, May 5th, 1893, panic hits Wall Street as the U.S. economy

endures a severe crash that marks the end of the agrarian dominance in the

country and brings in a progressive era. I'm joined as always by Nicole

Hammer of Columbia, Nicky, hello, nice to chat with you again. Hi dirty. So I just want to

paint a little bit of a picture of the aftermath of the crash of 1893 and then we'll talk about what caused it and its

legacy and so forth but some of these numbers are just kind of stunning.

In the wake of it we have 500 banks closed, 15,000 businesses fail, farms cease operation.

The unemployment rate hits 25% in Pennsylvania, 35% in New York, 43% in Michigan, soup kitchens opening to feed people who are now out of work and don't have money.

Policeman, this is such an interesting tidbit, policemen were stationed at railroad stations to turn away newcomers who were fleeing one city and trying to enter another,

so there was this kind of lockdown, hunker down mode.

Obviously it evokes a little bit of a sense of what we're feeling now, but I will say when we think about severe

economic crashes and moments of downturn in this country's history, I don't think 1893 necessarily

comes to mind for a lot of people right? Yeah I mean after

1929 when the stock market crashes and it leads to this decade-long

depression in the United States and in much of the world.

It sort of wipes away the historical memory of these really major

upheavals in the economy in the late 19th century.

I mean, 1893 isn't the only one. I mean, this is happening in the

1870s. It's kind of a regular feature of American economic life that every 10 to 20 years,

you're having these massive collapses of the economy that people have to

...