“We’re in the Money!” Game
• Your group begins with 5 points.
• Decide what you want to do before each
round:
– Hold Tight = keep what you have
– Play it Safe = potential for modest gains
– Go for the Gold! = potential for amazing
gains
• The roll of the dice will determine your
score (higher roll = higher points)
• Keep track of points in “Running Total”
column
• How did you feel when points were
rising? When they dropped
dramatically?
• Which of the three game options
produced the worst results in the end?
• How many groups decided to “Go for
the Gold!” sometime during the game?
Why did some groups make other
choices?
• Can you think of any time in history
when something like this happened?
• What is happening in this image?
• Who in our game might have ended up here?
• How do you think the event depicted here might be related to the overall American economy at the time?
essential questions:
How did the prosperous 1920s turn
into the Great Depression? What is
the Great Depression?
How did we see prosperity in the 1920s?
long-term causes of the Great
Depression:
1. overproduction
2. uneven prosperity
•
Mellon’s tax cut for wealthy
3. farmers
suffering
• would not recover from
1920-21 recession
• 25% of America
4. easy credit (too easy)
•
80% no savings
•
debt rising again today
•
artificially high stock
prices
5. speculation
6. margin buying
(a.k.a. buying on margin)
7. laissez-faire
government
Which of these do
we see today?
How?
the immediate cause of the Great
Depression:
Black Tuesday:
stock market
crash
• followed Black Thursday
• scared investors selling
makes things worse
video on Black Tuesday
The Great
Depression:
• from stock
market crash to
World War II
• employment and
values decrease
• bank runs > banks broke > savings
gone > banks fail
bank run,
1933
• self-perpetuating in a consumer economy
because spending is down
longer depression
less spending and
bank deposits
• depression is worldwide, though…
U.S. loans/investment
to Germany
G.B. and
France buy
U.S. goods
reparations
to G.B. and
France
…no nation hit as hard as the U.S.
Based on the charts shown, add three things
that will define the Great Depression:
consider:
How do you think the
Great Depression will
affect the lives of
Americans?
essential question:
How did the
Great
Depression
affect American
lives?
Farmers
• many losing
land (banks
foreclosing
when they can’t
pay their
mortgage;
equipment
repossessed)
• Dust Bowl: over-farming + droughts; these
blizzards of dust covered everything, even
killing livestock
Texas, 1935
• Okies: many farmers were forced to move
to cities where they added to the strains on
the cities resources
Men in the Cities
• depression from
inability to provide
for family,
dependence on
bread lines
bread line at Sixth Avenue and 42nd
Street
• many became hoboes
Families
• hard times brought some together, broke
others apart (divorce rates down, but mostly
due to cost)
Minorities
• on the one hand, hard times not new
• on the other hand, increased discrimination
(“last hired, first fired”)
Follow-up Assignment:
The literature and art of the 1920s showed how
bad the situation was. What would your life be
like in the Great Depression. Consider using or
showing the terms below to write or draw your
story.
speculation
buying on margin
Black Tuesday
bank run
Dust Bowl
Okies
hobo
bread lines
consider:
What would you want
government to do during
the Great Depression?
essential question:
How did Hoover fail
in his response to
the Great
Depression?
Herbert Hoover was
president from 19291933.
• encouraged volunteerism (i.e. asked
companies to not lay off workers) because
he said the business cycle would fix itself
• rejected idea of welfare when Americans
were increasingly looking to federal
government for direct relief
• raised tariffs, causing higher prices due to
retaliation from other countries
I’m Herbert Hoover.
I’m raising tariffs to
help get the U.S. out
of this depression.
OH YEAH?!? I’m
Prime Minister
MacDonald of
Great Britain and
I’m raising tariffs
too, jerk!
• reaction to Hoover
included naming
signs of poverty after
him (i.e. shantytowns
= “Hoovervilles”)
Empty pockets showing were called
“Hoover flags.”
• when Hoover did take
action, it was too
little (Boulder Dam,
later named Hoover
Dam), too late
(Reconstruction
Finance Corporation)
• the final thing to
ensure he would not
be reelected was his
reaction to the Bonus
Army
The Bonus Expeditionary Force, more
commonly known as the Bonus Army,
portrayed Hoover as Kaiser Wilhelm, the
leader of Germany during WWI.
o veterans
marched to Washington, D.C. to
demand their bonus early
Washington, D.C., police chief Major Pelham Glassford inspecting the camp
of the Bonus Army in 1932.
o when
they did not leave, Hoover had
the army force them out, injuring many
Tanks and
grenades
were used
by the U.S.
Army to
disperse the
Bonus Army
from their
encampment
at Anacostia
Flats, near
the U.S.
Capitol in
1932.
Possible captions:
• Many veterans marched
to Washington to demand
their bonuses early
during the Great
Depression.
• Both black and white
veterans marched to
Washington to demand
direct relief from the
government.
• The Bonus Army
illustrated how people
needed direct relief
during the Great
Depression and were not
getting it from Hoover.
A caption explains what a
picture is showing. Write
your own caption for the
pictures on the back of your
sheet. Mention Hoover in
each.
The Hot Seat
• one person volunteers to
be in the hot seat
• He or she answers a
series of multiple choice
questions
• 1 question right = sense of self-satisfaction
2 questions right = fist bump
3 questions right = gum
4 questions right = prize box
• You have two opportunities to “poll the class”
where you can see how the class answered
What is
shown in the
cartoon?
Does it
present this
as a good
thing or a bad
thing? How
can you tell?
essential question:
How did Franklin Roosevelt
respond to the Great Depression?
The New Deal:
• FDR won the election of 1932 because
he was not Hoover
• his reform
program
would be
known as
the New
Deal
• first thing FDR did was to declare a bank
holiday closing banks to prevent bank runs
until the banks could be fixed
• New Deal is also
called the Hundred
Days because that
is how long it took
for FDR to propose
(and Congress to
approve) more
than 15 new
pieces of
legislation to fight
the Great
Depression
• New Deal expanded federal government
Obama has been compared to FDR because both expanded the federal government.
• New Deal relies on deficit spending
(borrowing to pay for government
programs)
• FDR made
“direct” contact
with Americans
with his radio
addresses,
called “fireside
chats”
What effects did
these radio
addresses have?
statue at the FDR Memorial in
Washington, D.C.
link to FDR’s first fireside chat
Skim through pages
602-605. In your
groups, identify what
each of the New
Deal measures listed
on the sheet
(continues onto
back) did. Make sure
that you feel
comfortable with
each of these as
parts of the New
Deal.
Below the listing of New Deal programs,
categorize them in the following chart:
Creating
jobs
Fixing
business,
banks,
and the
stock
market
Helping
farmers
Fixing
labor
relations
Providing
retirement
security
Rules for Slaps!
• Please remove all hard, sharp, or
incendiary objects from your dominant
hand.
• Lay out the flashcards so that everyone
can reach them.
• When a term is described, you want to
be the first to slap your hand on the
card.
• Keep each card that you slap first.
• Whoever has the most cards at the end
of the game wins.
consider:
Why would anyone think FDR was doing too
much? Why would anyone think he wasn’t
doing enough?
essential question:
How did FDR respond to his critics?
the critics:
• conservatives
said the New
Deal was an
abuse of
Presidential
power
example: Supreme Court ruled New Deal
programs such as the NRA and AAA
unconstitutional
1932
Supreme
Court
• liberals said the New Deal did not do
enough for average Americans
example: Huey
Long endorsed a
“Share Our
Wealth” program
that would tax
the rich to give
money to
average
Americans
example:
Father Charles
Coughlin was a
radio priest that
wanted to
nationalize
industry and
banks
Father Charles Coughlin, leader of
the anti-Semitic Christian Front,
delivers a radio broadcast. Detroit,
United States, March 11, 1935.
How FDR
responded to the
Supreme Court:
• FDR proposed a
controversial
“court-packing”
scheme to add
justices to the
Supreme Court
• both liberals and conservatives hated the
plan
• did not matter in
the end because
the most anti-New
Deal justices soon
retired and the
Supreme Court
began to support
New Deal
programs
How FDR responded to the liberals:
• Second New Deal did
more for average
Americans
Works Progress
Administration: created
government jobs, many
in the arts
Wagner Act: protects formation of unions,
collective bargaining, and striking
(National Labor Relations Board to
enforce)
Social Security Act: retirement savings,
disability payments, and unemployment
benefits
Look back at your chart categorizing the
New Deal programs and add the three 2nd
New Deal programs in the proper category.
Circle them to indicate that they are part of
the 2nd New Deal.
Creating
jobs
Fixing
business,
banks,
and the
stock
market
Helping
farmers
Fixing
labor
relations
Providing
retirement
security
essential question:
How did FDR win the support of
women and minorities?
Eleanor Roosevelt—
changed the role of
First Lady to include
being active outside
the White House;
advocate for civil
rights
Eleanor Roosevelt at Works Progress Administration Negro
Nursery School in Des Moines, IA, 1936
Frances Perkins—
first woman in the
U.S. Cabinet
As Secretary of Labor, Perkins
was the first woman in the line of
succession of the Presidency.
Mary McLeod Bethune—
advisor in FDR’s Black
Cabinet
Eleanor Roosevelt and Mary
McLeod Bethune, 1937
essential question:
What role did the arts play in the
Great Depression?
some of the arts reflect life (literature,
visual arts); others provide an escape from
reality (radio and movies)
Look through pages 626-631. Find at least two
examples of any of the arts (visual art, movies,
literature, music, etc.) that reflected life and at least
two examples that provided an escape created during
the Great Depression to complete the chart below.
some of the arts reflect life (literature, visual
arts); others provide an escape from reality
(radio and movies)
Because Eleanor Roosevelt was an
ambassador of the New Deal, many people
looked to her directly for help.
Write a letter to Eleanor from a 1930s
American either asking her for help or
thanking her.
• Use at least three of the terms on the board
(also seen on your “Prosperity and
Depression” overview page) and underline
them when used.
• Make sure that you have at least six
sentences overall.