Teacher Instructions
• Supplies Needed:
• Copy 1-per-student, back-to-back: The Economic Collapse
Fill-In Lecture (pages 1 & 2)
• Copy 1-per-student, The Great Depression Story
• Begin the class by playing the Power Point Presentation: The
Great Depression Preview as the students enter the room.
Pass out the handouts above.
• Display the Pair-Share on the power point: The Causes of the
Great Depression. Continue with the lecture as the students
take notes. For homework have the students complete the
critical thinking questions.
• For each slide, have a class discussion using the questions
included.
• Have the students complete the Wrap-Up Activity: Storyboard
Opening Activity
• PAIR SHARE
• The year is 1929. The U.S.
economy has collapsed.
• Farms, businesses, and
banks nationwide are
failing
• There is massive
unemployment and poverty.
• You are out of work with
little prospect of finding a
job.
• What would you do to feed
your family?
The Great Depression Introduction
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Who was involved? Key figures
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What was it?
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Where did it occur?
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When did it happen?
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Why is it important?
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Herbert Hoover-President when the depression started
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR)-succeeded Hoover, credited with ending the depression
Period in American history of economic downfall
1 out of every 4 Americans were unemployed
Gross National Product (GNP) was cut in half from $104 billion to $59 billion
Almost half of the banks closed
Began in New York with the Stock Market Crash
Spread across America and the world
Black Tuesday October 29, 1929 to about…end date is debated upon by historians
The Great Depression will change fundamentally the role of government in the lives of
Americans.
The government will abandon laissez faire policies for a more interventionist approach.
Write it in your own words
CA Standards
• 11.6 Students analyze the different explanations
for the Great Depression and how the New Deal
fundamentally changed the role of the federal
government.
• Describe the monetary issues of the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries that gave rise to the
establishment of the Federal Reserve and the
weaknesses in key sectors of the economy in the late
1920s.
• Understand the explanations of the principal causes of
the Great Depression and the steps taken by the Federal
Reserve, Congress, and Presidents Herbert Hoover and
Franklin Delano Roosevelt to combat the economic
crisis.
Objective
•Students will be able to
analyze the causes of the
Great Depression by
completing a storyboard.
#1: The Postwar Economic Boom
• What do you see
here?
• What message does
the billboard send?
• Describe the area
surrounding the
billboard.
• When do you think
the billboard was
created?
• What irony is there in
this photograph?
#1: The Post War Economic Boom
• Twenties Prosperity
• During the 1920s, Americans believed that poverty in the US
would be eliminated. Due to increased earnings, many
Americans had more money to spend on luxury goods such
as a radios and cars. By 1929, the US Stock Market was at
an all time high, over 1.1 billion shares of stock was traded.
• The Depression Foreshadowed
• By late 1929, problems began to surface. Unemployment
was on the rise, farmers were losing their land, and stock
prices were dropping. The number of Americans living in
poverty increased, and few people could afford luxury goods.
On October 29, 1929 the stock market crashed.
• Causes of the Great Depression
• 1.Republican laissez faire in domestic affairs 2. Stock
speculation 3. Unregulated banking institutions 4.
overproduction of goods 5. decline of farming industry 6.
unequal distribution of wealth.
#2: Republican Economic Policies
• What do you see
here?
• These men are all
conservative
Republicans. With
this in mind, how
do you think they
dealt with business?
#2: Republican Economic Policies
• Domestic Economic Policies
• Republican Presidents Calvin Coolidge and Herbert Hoover
believed in “trickle down” economics. They believed that
economic policies that benefited business and the wealthy
would eventually “trickle down” to average Americans. For
example, if the government gave taxes cuts to the wealthy
they would invest that money into the economy for the
benefit of all. However wealth did not trickle down. The
wealthy spent the money on expanding their work facilities
and saved it for themselves.
• International Economic Policies
• After WW1, European countries were in debt to the U.S. and
began to default on their loans. The U.S. placed high taxes
on foreign goods to discourage Americans from buying their
merchandise. This meant that European goods would not be
sold here causing Europeans to lose more money and further
default on their loans.
#3: Real Estate and Stock Speculation
• Describe what you
see.
• What building do
you see?
• Who are the people
on the ground? On
the building?
• What does this
represent about
stockbrokers during
this period?
#3: Real Estate and Stock Speculation
• Unchecked Stock Market Speculation
• Speculation is when a person or organization makes
a risky investment on the hopes of getting rich
quick. Investors believed that the stock market
would go up indefinitely and that companies’ profits
would continue to rise. So, investors speculated
which companies’ stocks would rise and then bought
large amounts of stock. They would then turn
around and sell the stock for higher price, making a
quick easy profit. The value of a company’s stock
became artificially inflated and did not correlate to
the companies’ actual worth.
• Stock analysts began to predict the market was
headed for a fall. They warned that stock prices
could not continue to rise at such an inflated rate
and that the prices were exceeding the stock’s
actual worth.
#4: The Stock Market Crash and the Banking Industry Collapse
• What do you see here?
• Where is this
occurring?
• What are the people
doing?
Film Clip: Black Tuesday
• #4: The Stock Market Crash and the Banking Industry Collapse
• The 1929 Stock Market Crash
• In late 1929 investors began selling their stock while they could still get
a profit from them. As investors began selling, stock prices began to fall.
On 10/29/29, or Black Tuesday investors flooded the NYSE with sell at
any price orders. By the end of the day, investors lost $16 billion. By
October’s end, the stock market was in ruins and the Great Depression
had officially begun.
• Unregulated Banking Institutions
• Banks collapsed because of the Republican policy of laisse faire and
banks’ overextension of credit to stock investors. The government did not
prevent banks from speculating depositor’s money on high risk ventures.
It did not also demand that banks keep a certain percentage of money on
reserve and available. Therefore, when banks folded after the stock
market crash, their customers had no way of getting their money. Banks
permitted investors to buy stocks on large margins of credit. For
example, if an investor wanted to buy $20,000 worth of stock, he only
had to put up 10% (2,000) of his money. The bank would then loan the
remaining 90% or $18,000. The bank would seize the stock if they could
not repay the loan as if it were theirs. Banking officials thought that
stocks were good as money and would not go down.
• The Banking Industry Collapse: Results
• Families that played the stock market lost all
their -money. Investors who had bought stocks
on margin had to sell them at a fraction of their
original price. This meant that they could not
pay the bank the amount it had loaned to him.
This meant that the bank could not replace its
own money, which it had used to fund the
speculators loans. So, even people who didn’t
invest in the stock market lost their money.
Unemployment increased which meant that
people began to default on their mortgages. This
meant that banks lost even more money. By
1932, 1/4 of the nations banks closed.
Pair-Share
• The bank is
failing. How do
you think the
depositors
trying to get
their money are
feeling?
• How do you
think the bank
failures affected
the nation?
Slide #5
Overproduction
• Describe what you
see.
• Why are they doing
this?
• How might the
economic collapse be
explained by what
you see in these two
pictures?
• #5 Overproduction
• Industrial Goods
• Consumer demands for goods was higher after WWI.
Americans wanted to enjoy life after the horrors of
WWI. Advertisements enticed Americans to purchase
more and more goods. As a result, business owners
continued to flood the market with huge supply of
goods. By 1929, there were more products available
than people to buy them.
• Agricultural Goods
• Americans farmers prospered during WWI because
they provided food to the U.S. and Europe. After the
war, farmers mechanized farming techniques to
increase production . However, Europe did not need
American food anymore resulting in an
overproduction of crops. Farmers were stuck with a
surplus crops they could not sell, or could only sell for
a low price.
#6: The Toll on the Farming Industry
• Describe what you
see.
• Why are there no
people in the
picture?
• Why did they leave?
Where did they go?
Film Clip: The Dust Bowl
• #6: The Toll on the Farming Industry
• The Farming Industry Decline
• During the 1920’s, farmers borrowed heavily from
banks to pay for new equipment. When farmers
could not sell their crops, they could not pay their
loans. Farmers defaulted on their loans and they
lost their farms to bank foreclosures. The banks
would then try to sell the farm, but there were few
that could afford to buy it. This meant that the
bank lost even more money.
• The Dust Bowl
• A severe drought caused the soil to turn into dust.
Farmers and their families fled the Dust Bowl and
headed west to California in search of employment.
People referred to these as migrants farmers as
“Okies”. Unable to pay for adequate housing, the
Okies were forced to live in shacks.
Pair-Share
• One reason the Dust Bowl occurred was
_____________________.
• As a result, _________________________.
• A cause of the Dust Bowl was ______________.
• For this reason, __________________.
• Because of the _________ many ______
_______.
• An effect of the dust storms was ______.
• Consequently when the dust storms came
________.
Slide #7: Unequal
Distributions of Wealth
• Describe what you see.
• Where do you think they
are going?
• How is their life different
from the doorman?
• How would the gap
between the rich and the
poor contribute to the
economic collapse of the
1920’s?
• #7: Unequal Distributions of Wealth
• The Gap Between the Rich and Poor
• During the 1920’s, the gap grew wider and distribution of
wealth grew unequal. In 1929, 1% of the population
owned 59% of the nations wealth. 60% of U.S. families
lived on or below the poverty line. Workers struggled to
survive in the 1920’s. Companies replaced workers with
machines that produced goods faster and cheaper.
Corporations rarely passed profits onto the workers with
higher wages. Instead they kept wages low and used the
money to improve their facilities.
• Purchasing Power is Lost.
• Banks and business tried to encourage consumer
spending by allowing people to buy things on credit. But
Americans fell deeper and deeper into debt as they
purchased items they couldn’t afford and paid the high
interest on them. By 1929, Americans could not afford
basic necessities let alone luxury goods. A small handful
of wealthy Americans could not fill in the gap for the
entire nation. Sales dropped and companies began to fail.
Film Clip: The Great Depression
Wrap-Up
Activity
• Complete the
Storyboard: The
Great
Depression
Story.
• The more details
you give, the
better grade you
get!