The Depression and The New
Deal
Causes of the Depression
• Stock Market Crash
• Uneven Distribution of
Wealth
• Overproduction in
industry and agriculture
Causes of the Depression, cont’d
• Farmers’ income down
• Farmers can’t pay back
loans
• Banks also lost money
on stock purchase
• Banks begin to close
The Great Depression in Numbers
• Between 1929 and 1932 86,000
businesses closed and 9000
banks closed
• Unemployment went from
3.2% in 1929 to 24.9% in 1932
• Stocks lost 89% of their value
The Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl
• Over 350,000 “Okies”
moved from that region to
California in the early
1930s.
• John Steinbeck wrote about
these migrants in The
Grapes of Wrath.
This Drought-Stricken Land by
Alexander Hogue
The Crucified Land
by Alexander Hogue
Hoover’s Response to Depression
• Hoover was a strong
believer in “rugged
individualism”
• Reconstruction Finance
Corporation (1932)—
companies and
railroads
• Business gets help; poor
do not
• “Hoovervilles”
The Bonus Army
• 1924 legislation
• Wanted early payment
• 1932 Veterans occupy
DC (20,000)
• Hoover opposed
• Ordered Army to tear
down shacks
Election of 1932
• Hoover was
renominated as the
Republican candidate
• Hoover --insensitive
• Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, former
Governor of New York,
was Democratic
nominee
Election of 1932
• Hoover did not believe in the
government creating public
works programs to relieve
unemployment
• Americans understood that
voting for FDR would mean a
change in federal policy
• FDR won 57% of the vote and 42
of 48 states
FDR Wins Election 1932
• “I pledge you, I pledge
myself, to a new deal
for the American
people.”
3 Rs
• Relief (for people out of
work)
• Recovery (for
businesses & the
economy)
• Reform (of American
economic institutions)
Destitute
Alphabet Agencies
Industry
Farming
Stock Market
Banking
Find out more - Internet.
First Hundred Days
•
•
•
•
March 4, 1933
Inaugural address
Gathers “brain trust”
Design programs for 3
Rs
First Hundred Days
• Emergency Banking
Relief Act
• Bank holiday
Run on the Banks
First Hundred Days
• Civilian Conservation
Corps
• Tennessee Valley
Authority
• Agricultural Adjustment
Act
• National Industrial
Recovery act
• Glass-Steagall Banking
Act
FDR’s First New Deal
• First Hundred Days
programs—part of First
New Deal
• Securities and Exchange
Commission
• Federal Housing
Administration
• U.S. drops gold
standard
FDR’s Second New Deal
• Much of the First New
Deal was devoted to
Recovery
• Summer of 1935 more
legislation begun for
Relief and Reform
Second New Deal (1934-35)
• Works Progress
Administration
• Social Security Act
• Wagner Labor Relations
Act
Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
WPA—Federal Arts Projects
WPA—Federal Arts Projects
WPA—Federal Arts Projects
WPA—Federal Arts Projects
WPA—Federal Arts Projects
WPA—Federal Arts Projects
WPA—Federal Arts Projects
Oral Histories
Former Slave Interviews
Opponents to the New Deal & FDR
•
•
•
•
Father Charles Coughlin
Dr. Francis Townsend
Huey Long
Election of 1936
Supreme Court Problems
• 1935—Schechter v.
U.S. rules NIRA
unconstitutional
• Later AAA ruled
unconstitutional also
(U.S. v Butler)
• FDR proposes “Court
reform bill.”
Supreme Court problems
• Plan: New justices (6)
• Congress & public
opposed
• FDR’s biggest defeat
• Supreme Court upholds
program
• FDR eventually appoints
a total of nine Justices
Recession of 1937-38
• Economy looks better in
1937
• FDR reduces funding for
New Deal
• Economy goes into
recession again
• Using advice from John
Maynard Keynes, FDR
adds a third round of
New Deal spending in
1938
The New Deal and the Role of the
Federal Government
• Completely changed role of government in the
welfare of the average American
• Finished out Progressive Era reforms
• Federal government became largest single
employer
• Had a role in schools, farms, retired people
and more
The New Deal and Labor
• Labor union
membership increased
• John L. Lewis creates
Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO)
• The Wagner Act
The New Deal and African Americans
• The New Deal didn’t
confront racism
(Scottsboro Boys trial)
• CCC camps were
segregated
• Blacks become largely
Democratic
• Eleanor Roosevelt—
vocal supporter of
minority rights
The New Deal and Women
• New Deal programs were
almost exclusively for
men
• CCC only hired men
• Eleanor Roosevelt again
became a symbol of a
new kind of woman
• Frances Perkins, first
female cabinet member,
served as Secretary of
Labor from 1933-45.
Success or Failure?
1. Reduced unemployment
by 7 million
2. Soil conservation initiated
3. The Stock Market and
banks recovered.
4. Transformed the
Tennessee valley.
5. Roosevelt was re-elected.
1. Still 6 million out of work
in 1941.
2. The numbers fell due to
enlistment and
rearmament in WW2.
3. Black people were
segregated from white.
4. Women were excluded
from the New Deal.
5. Tennessee benefited but
many areas were still
suffering.