Unit 9: Boom to Bust 1920 - 1939
Study Guide Key
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What was the impact of radio/mass
media on American culture?
Shaped mass culture, communication, spread fads, various items
from our presentations
What role did radio/mass media
play in the roaring 20’s? What
about in the Great Depression of
the 30s? How did it change?
What were the new trends in music
and entertainment in the 20s and
30s?
What was the Scopes Trial and how
did it challenge traditional values?
People used radio, movies as an escape from problems of the
depression. Also, FDR used radio to communicate with Americans
via Fireside Chats
Who/what are Flappers?
Young “modern” women of the 20’s , challenged traditional gender
roles by wearing shocking clothes (short dresses), dancing, smoking
and drinking, and going out at night
What are examples of and reasons
for intolerance in the 20’s?
Against open immigration, against the general changes in society,
and (still) against African-Americans. The KKK had a big renewal in
this time
What was Prohibition?
Made it illegal to sell or manufacture alcohol. The Progressive
reformers thought Prohibition would “clean up society” and get rid
of problems. The 18th Amendment outlawed alcohol.
Did Prohibition work? What were
the impacts of the law?
Not really –People still drank at speak-easies (private bars) or private
parties. Even worse, crime grew in the cities as the alcohol business was
controlled by gangsters and bootleggers (criminals who made and sold
alcohol).
Describe the economy in the 1920’s
Prosperity, Optimism (too much), consumer spending fueled by advertising
and credit, over-speculation in the stock market, big gap between rich (a
very few) and poor (very many), most people did not have much savings,
not a big middle class
What were the major causes of the
stock market crash on Black
Tuesday, Oct 29th, 1929?
Jazz , ragtime, music from Harlem Renaissance, became popular in
cities
Scopes Monkey Trial (1925), about teaching Darwin’s theory of
Evolution in schools
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Business was booming, but investments were made with borrowed money
(overspeculation).
There was excessive expansion of credit.
Business failures led to bankruptcies.
Bank deposits were invested in the market.
When the market collapsed, the banks ran out of money.
What is overspeculation & why is it
bad?
too much confidence in the stock market, leading to unwise
investing (I’ll invest my life savings)
What is “buying on margin” & why
is it bad?
Investing in the stock market with borrowed money – very risky to
gamble with money that you have to pay back
What were the effects of the stock
market crash?
Clients panicked, attempting to withdraw their money from the banks, but
there was nothing to give them. (Because all the bank’s customers had
panicked and come to get their money, and/or the bank had invested some
of their money in the stock market.)
Banks failed, and closed, and businesses failed, because there were no new
investments.
What were the major causes of the
Great Depression?
1. The stock market crash of 1929 and collapse of stock prices (obvious)
2. Federal Reserve’s failure to prevent widespread collapse of the nation’s
banking system in the late 1920s and early 1930s, leading to severe
contraction in the nation’s supply of money in circulation (the “heart”
did not pump more $$ into the economy)
3. High protective tariffs that produced retaliatory tariffs in other
countries, strangling world trade (Tariff Act of 1930, popularly called the
Hawley-Smoot Act – dumb)
What were the major impacts of
the Great Depression?
Why didn’t Hoover do more to fix
the Depression when it started?
What was FDR’s philosophy about
the role of government?
How did FDR communicate with the
American people?
What was FDR’s plan for fixing the
Depression? What were the three
R’s?
SSA: Social Security Act of 1935 –
What did it do?
What was the goal of Relief
programs of the New Deal? Give
two examples and what they did.
What was the goal of Recovery
programs of the New Deal? Give
two examples and what they did.
What was the goal of Reform
programs of the New Deal? Give
two examples and what they did.
What was the legacy of New Deal?
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Unemployment and homelessness
Collapse of the financial system (bank closings)
Decline in demand for goods
Farm foreclosures and migration West
 Political unrest (growing militancy of labor unions)
Didn’t think it was an appropriate role for the Fed gov’t. Thought
it was business’s job to take care of boom/bust cycles in the
economy (which were pretty common). He was a laissez-faire
kind of Republican, pretty standard for his day..
 He thought the government should have a more active role in
solving problems.
Fireside Chats. Radio addresses. Roosevelt rallied a frightened
nation in which one in four workers 25% was unemployed. (“We
have nothing to fear, but fear itself.”)
New Deal: Relief, Recovery, Reform
 Social Security Act offered safeguards for workers.
 Safety Net social insurance, workers and empoyers pay into it, then when
you’re too old or sick to work, you can get payments.
direct payment to people for immediate help (Works Progress
Administration) WPA provided all kinds of jobs, construction,arts,
teaching, etc.
Also, CCC – Civilian Conservation Corps – for young men , jobs
outdoors.
Recovery: bring the nation out of the depression over time – restart the
economy’s major sectors (industry, farming, banking) Agricultural
Adjustment Administration—AAA) and TVA. AAA – tried to regulate
the farming industry
Reform : corrected unsound banking and investment practices (Federal
Deposit Insurance Corporation—FDIC) and SEC Federal Deposit
Insurance Corp – insures deposits, so if your bank goes out of business
(or burns down, or the owner runs off with all the money), you won’t lose
all your money. The gov’t insures it.
The legacy of the New Deal influenced the public’s belief in the
responsibility of government to deliver public services, to intervene in the
economy, and to act in ways that promote the general welfare.
Some programs are still around today.