Great Depression
Photographs
Homeless People on the Road
Eating in a Breadline
Life in the Depression
10th American History
Unit IV- U.S. Economic
History to 1945
The Great Depression
Reading Quiz
1) What is a run on the bank?
2) Give two causes of the depression.
3) What was a “Hooverville”?
4) What was the Dust Bowl?
5) What are Okies?
6) Why did farmers and other
businesses fail?
What did Hoover do?
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Traditional Approach to a
depression- Cut Government
Spending and let the Depression
burn it self out- this will get rid
of the rottenness in the system.
Hoover did not sit still
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He called on states, cities, and
all private charities to feed the
hungry.
Brought business and labor
leaders together.
Cut his own salary by 1/5th
Cut taxes- did little good
Public works jobs.
3:24 min.
The Great Depression Begins in America
Causes of the Great Depression
1) The Stock Market Crash of 1929- a
trigger.
2) Unequal distribution of Wealth. False
prosperity (A maldistribution of
purchasing power).
3) Overproduction and over dependence on
mass production.
4) Unemployment
5) Speculation in Stock Market- buying on
margin and cheap money
6) Banking crisis.
7) Trade collapse
8) Republican Party
9) Federal Reserve and Money system
10) Lack of diversification.
11) Post war deflationary procedures.
12) The Credit structure.
Development of the Great Depression
 Bank
 Not
Failures
all Americans invested but most all had
money in savings.
 Banks had no deposit insurance and little
cash on hand.
 Runs on banks.
 Hundreds of banks failed.
 By 1933- bank failures wiped out billions of
dollars of savings, add this to the crash and
things got worse.
Development of the Great Depression
 Farm
Failures
 Unemployment
reduced American’s ability to
buy food and people went hungry
 Farmers overproduced, surpluses went up and
prices went down.
 Lower prices means lower income for farmers.
 Farmers borrowed for land and equipment,
now were unable to repay loans.
 1933- over 364,000 foreclosures
Development of the Great Depression
 Unemployment
1929-1930 steep
rise in unemployment
which would last a long time.
1933- GNP dropped more than 40%
1933- unemployment was at 25%.
Black areas were higher- Harlem up to
50%
The Human Impact of the Great Depression
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Hoovervilles
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Thousands applying for every job.
People begged from door to door.
Soup kitchens and Bread lines.
1930’s- no federal programs to provide food or
money to the poor.
Local Charities, municipal and state gov’t
provided relief.
1932 on 1 in 4 families needing unemployment
relief got any.
People lost their homes- eviction and foreclosure.
Hoovervilles- Shantytowns for the homeless.Ramshackle, leaky and drafty
 No running water or electricity
 Unemployed males were idle and desperate.
 Emotional Toll- personal failure, pride, anger
The Human Impact of the Great Depression
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Hoboes
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Mostly men- unskilled migratory
laborer, an itinerant and seasonal
worker.
Mostly white, American born, and
able bodied.
Hopped trains to travel from town
to town- Illegal, dangerous and
hired “Bulls”.
Beg or stole food.
System of sign language.
Families sometimes broke under
the strain of poverty and
homelessness. Many left their
families behind.
The Great Depression
4:30 min.
Devastation of the Dust Bowl
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Great Plains Drought1931
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Dust storms
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brought on by years of
careless agriculture
practices.
Wind storms stripped away
topsoil and blew it for
hundreds of miles.
Drifts choked crops, buried
farms and blew into homes.
Dust Bowl
Devastation of the Dust Bowl
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Migration
 Fleeing the Plains- “Okies”
 People quit, packed up and
moved.
 End of 1930’s- 2.5 million
left.
 Headed west on Route 66 to
California and migrant
farm camps.
 Met by resistance and
discrimination.
 Grapes of Wrath- book
Devastation of the Dust Bowl
0:36 min.
1:02 min.
Migration the Dust Bowl
2:50 min.
4:17 min.
Hoover’s Reaction to the Depression
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Rugged individualism
 Unnecessary
gov’t threatens prosperity and dims the
spirit of the people
 Some gov’t oversight and regulation is needed, but
people need their own responsibility and power.
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Associative state
 Voluntary
business associations- for fairness and
efficiency.
 Voluntary partnership with businesses and government.
 Hoover Dam-government funded it, but six companies
designed and built it.
Hoover’s Reaction to the Depression
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Voluntary cooperation
 Gov’t should not provide direct aid but find ways to help people help
themselves.
 Farm cooperatives-organization owned and controlled by its members.
 Help farmers buy materials cheaper, and help raise crop price and farmer
income.
 Hoover urged business leaders not to lay off workers or cut wages.
Direct action- cooperation was not working.
 Businesses cut jobs and wages
 States and locals stopped building programs
 Consumers stopped spending
 1932 Hoover created with Congress the Reconstruction Finance Corporation$2 billion in direct government loans to struggling banks, insurance
companies and other institutions.
 1932- Federal Home Loan Bank- to encourage home building and stop
foreclosures.
The Smoot-Hawley Tariff- High and disastrous
Nation’s Response to Hoover
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Losing favor
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Hoover was optimistic- but the worst was
yet to come.
 He still refused direct aid.
 But he did give aid to banks and
businesses but not individuals.
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Bonus Army- 15,000 set up camp
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1932- WWI Veterans march on
Washington to demand their bonus $1.25
for each day overseas- to be paid in 1945
 They need the money now
 Hoover sent out the troops to clear them
out- Violence
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Voter Reaction- 1930 Republicans
began to lose seats in Congress.