American Culture 1930-39
I. The Stock Market Crash of 1929
A. The 1929 Stock Market Crash
is well known as the
most devastating crash in
United States history.
B. Which marked
the beginning of the Great
Depression.
C. It didn’t happen on a single
day
1. The stock market
2.
continued to plummet over
the course of a few days
Setting in motion one of the
most devastating
periods in the history of the
United States
II. Black Thursday
A. The most significant events
started on Black Thursday,
October 24, 1929
B. On that day, nearly 13 million
shares of stock were traded.
1.
2.
It was a record number of
stock trades for the U.S.
Marked the end of
an upward trend on stock
prices
C. On Black Thursday, the stock
prices dropped so quickly, the
stock ticker could not keep up
D. As the day progressed, the
stock ticker lagged behind,
failing to show the most
up to date stock prices.
III. Top American Bankers Try to Save
the Banking System
A. On the next day, Friday,
October 25, several of the
nation’s largest bankers met
to decide what they could do
about the situation
1.
2.
Among the attendees were
the heads of Morgan Bank,
Chase National Bank, and
National City Bank
The bankers ultimately
decided to purchase a
number of U.S. Steel shares
above market price
B. The bankers who tried to
thwart the 1929 stock market
crash were unsuccessful
C. In those days, the stock market
traded six days a week
D. The bankers’ move led to a slight
increase in stock price on
Saturday, October 26
1. Over the weekend many
investors lost faith in the
stocks and decided to sell their
shares
When the markets reopened on
Monday, October 28, 1929,
another record number of stocks
were traded
2.
a.
b.
c.
d.
The stock market declined more
than 22%
The situation worsened yet
again on the infamous Black
Tuesday, October 29, 1929
When more than 16 million
stocks were traded
The stock market ultimately lost
$14 billion that day.
IV. Causes of The Stock Market Crash
A. Rising stock markets
1.
Throughout the 1920's, the
New York Stock Exchange
had risen dramatically
faster than any time in the
nation's history.
This sudden appearance of
overnight multimillionaires convinced
many that the stock market
was the easy way to future
riches.
Indeed, during much of the
1920's, fortunes were made
overnight by many
investors who bought stock
2.
3.
a.
b.
frequently without little of
their own money
sold it as it rose in value
B. Margin Loans
1. Refers to the practice of using
borrowed money to pay for
stocks in order to pay for
much more stock than one
could normally afford
2. An investor went to a bank
and received a loan for the
purpose of buying stock
3. The investor offered the stock
to be purchased as collateral
4. Thanks to so many poor loans
that were made for the
purpose of buying stock,
many banks were unable to
cover their losses and were
short of cash
C. Overproduction
1. Businesses boomed
overnight in the 1920's
2. In order to assure buyers
that they would not be
left without items to buy,
manufacturers produced
at top capacity
a. What manufacturers
did not realize was
that while their output
rose by 40%
b. The wages of average
workers rose only 25%
D. Agricultural Depression
1. All through the 1920's, while
those in the East Coast and
Wall Street prospered, the
American farm family
suffered
2. During WWI while crop
priced were high, many
farmers went further into
debt to buy more land and
better farm equipment
a. When the war ended, crop
prices plummeted
b. They had more bills to pay
than they did before the
war
E. European Depression
1. In the 1920's, Europe, source
of several of our most
important trading partners,
was in a depression of its own
2. Paying for the unimaginable
costs of WWI
a. The cost of WWI actually
exceeded the amount of
money in circulation in the
entire world
b. European nations were
forced to divert most of
their national earnings into
debt repayment
3. This had the effect of leaving
little left over to trade with
the United States
Great Depression Activity
• Choose a partner.
• One person plays the role of the interviewer and the other person plays the
role of the interviewee.
• Using your computers research the answers to the interviewers questions
• Questions:
a) Where were you living in the 1930s?
b) How old were you in the 1930s?
c) What do you remember most about the 1930s?
d) How did the Great Depression affect your family?
e) How was your life affected by the Great Depression?
f) What activities did you participate in during the 1930s?
g) Are there any particular stories or experiences form these years that
you can tell me?
h) What was a typical day like for you?
i) How was your life in the 1930s different than life today?
j) Is there anything else you would like to tell me about your life in the
1930s?
Great Depression Activity
• Create a PowerPoint presentation for the
interview
• Each presentation must contain the following:
▫ A title slide
▫ Each slide must contain:
 The question
 The answer
 A picture to aid in interpreting the interviewee’s
answer
V. Historic Event
A. Dust Bowl
1. Tons of topsoil were
blown off barren
fields and carried in
storm clouds for
hundreds of miles
2. Its primary area of
impact was on the
southern Plains
B. Causes
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Poor agricultural practices
and years of sustained
drought caused the Dust
Bowl.
Plains grasslands had been
deeply plowed and planted
to wheat.
The droughts of the early
1930s deepened, the
farmers kept plowing and
planting and nothing would
grow
The ground cover that held
the soil in place was gone.
The Plains winds whipped
across the fields raising
billowing clouds of dust to
the sky's
In some places the dust
would drift like snow,
covering farmsteads.
C. Effects
1. Mass Migrations
2. 1000s of “Okies”
fled for Arizona and
California
3. Migrants were
seeking opportunity
4. Many adolescents left
their families to find
opportunities of their
own especially those
with younger mouths
to feed
VI. Culture of the Great Depression
A. Brother, Can You Spare A
Dime? - YouTube
• "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by
Jay Gorney (1931)
• They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob, When
there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead, Why
should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?
• Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time. Once I built a
railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime? Once I built a tower, up
to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime; Once I built a tower, now it's done.
Brother, can you spare a dime?
• Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell, Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum, Half a
million boots went slogging through Hell, And I was the kid with the drum!
• Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time. Why don't you
remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?
• Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell, Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum, Half a
million boots went slogging through Hell, And I was the kid with the drum!
• Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time. Say, don't you
remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?
B. Sharp fall in birth rates
1. Couples opted to not add any
more mouths to feed
2. Family units compact to
have, generally, a single
child.
C. Marriage rates decreased
1. Matrimony was put on hold
until “better times”
2. Males waited until they
could provide for a family
before proposing
D. Divorce rates dropped
1. Rates of abandonment
increased
a. “Poor man’s divorce”
2. They just ran away from
their marriages
E. Rise in antisocial
behavior
F. People that survived
through the Great
Depression
1. Frugal
2. Wary of banks
3. Distrustful of the
stock market
4. Apt to hoard food
G. To forget their troubles people
turned to mass media
1. Broadway
a. Tobacco Road
b. Superman
2. Radio
a. The Lone Ranger
b. The Green Hornet
3. Movies
a. 2 out of every 5 American
saw at least one movie per
week
b. Gone with the Wind
c. Frankenstein
d. Snow White and the
Seven Dwarfs