New Quarter/Semester Starts Today!
Reminder of class routine:
~Be in your seat before the bell
~Take out your history notebook,
and pen/pencil.
~Clear off everything else on your table
~Get set up for your Warm Up
Quick Start
1. Describe what you see and the mood in both pictures. What
clues are obvious? Then compare the two pictures and describe 1
similarity and 1 difference.
2. What is one question you would ask the lady in the picture on
the left?
1920’s vs. 1930’s
Prosperity of the 1920’s
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More people were wealthy
Wages rose by 40%
Employment was high
Idea that everyone could be rich
The stock market was soaring
More people in the middle and upper class than
ever before
Prosperity Hides Troubles
Optimism Sweeps Hoover to Victory


In the 1920’s the U.S. economy was booming
Herbert Hoover – an accomplished public servant –
becomes 31st President in 1928.
CHAPTER 12
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
12.1 The Causes of the Great Depression
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1. Easy credit/installment buying led people
to purchase goods they didn’t have cash for
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80% of radios and 60 % of cars were purchased in
this manner
“Buying on Margin”-borrowed money to invest
2. Farmers Suffered in the 1920’s
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Made up ¼ of the American workforce and met the
needs created by WWI
Purchased more land and new farming technology
on credit
After the war, low prices and demand led to less
profits
3. Wealth Is Distributed Unevenly
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During the 1920’s
wages rose slowly while
profits increased.
The rich got richer, but
the workers didn’t
benefit.
The 1% wealthiest will
not sustain the economy
A large % of Americans
are going to suffer in a
depression
Other problems brewing in the 1920’s
economy
4. Weakness in the Banking System- Lending large
loans. Banks were not insured. Banks invested in the
stock market.
5. WWI War Debts- needed to be paid
6. Decline in World Trade- Market for U.S goods
dropped
7. Surplus of goods- Overproduction
8. The Stock Market Crash of 1929
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Speculation – investors gambled, with money they often
did not have (buying on margin) on stock increases to
turn quick profits
Black Thursday- October 24th. First panic. Ticker tape
machine fell behind as people drastically sell their
stocks
Richard Whitney buys 10,000 shares of U.S Steel for
$205. Restores confidence and the market recovered!
Black Tuesday- October 29th, more than 16 mil shares
were sold. Stock values continue to drop over the next
several months.
The Great Depression Begins
The Banks Collapse


Great Depression – a period lasting from 1929 to
1941 in which the economy faltered and
unemployment soared
Too many run on banks. People lost confidence in
the economy and ran to withdraw their saving from
banks ( not enough $)
Run on the Banks
• People begin to pull
their money out of the
bank.
• 1929-1933 5,000
More banks fail
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One Billion dollars
removed from
banks by 1930
Snowball effect
Effects on the cycle of production:
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Companies’ stock prices plummet

Companies cut production and lay off workers

Workers are jobless and collect less income

Consumers spend and buy less goods

Companies fail
Tariffs Add to the Woes


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The government tried to protect American products
from foreign competition using tariffs
Hawley-Smoot Tariff – raised prices on foreign
imports so they could not compete in the American
market
The strategy was a mistake. Other nations
retaliated and raised tariffs as well.
Tariffs
As international trade falls, a global drop in
business leads to a worldwide depression.
Key Concepts- Answer on Exit Slip



What economic problems lurked beneath the
general prosperity of the 1920’s?
What happened on October 29, 1929?
How did the stock market crash contribute to the
onset of the depression?
SECTION 2
Americans Face Hard Times
Misery and Despair Grip America’s
Cities


The Great Depression had a deep and lasting
impact on the lives of the people who lived through
it
Every American was touch by the effects of the
Great Depression directly or indirectly
Family Life
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Marriage, birth rates drop
Men lost jobs, could not support their families
Crime rates rise
Some men abandon families, become “hoboes”
Women can food, sew clothes, do laundry to make
money
Available jobs taken away from women, given to men
People believed it was “wrong” for a woman to hold a job
while so many men were out of work
 Women received less pay for their work

Family Life
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Children in poor health
Not enough food, starving
Diseases – rickets, scurvy, flu
Schools closed, no education or child care
• Three homeless children. You should note that
children often tried to find work during the Great
Depression, too. Many traveled across the country
and away from their families.
Searching for a Job and a Meal

Between 1921 and 1929 unemployment rates
never rose above 3.7 percent by the peak of the
Great Depression the rate was at 24.9 percent
Cont…
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Workers faced staggering layoffs and signs that
read “No help wanted here” and “We don’t need
nobody”
Women tried to find work and many families went
to soup kitchens
Bread Line – people lined up for handouts from
charities or public agencies
Breadlines were common. Soup
kitchens depended on private
donations to operate
People looking for a jobs. Jobs were rare, and many
people would be after the same position. Most would
go away empty-handed.
• Breadline that
stretched
around the
corner. Look at
how many
people have to
rely on free
food to survive.
Descending Into Poverty
“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 aheadWhy should I be standing in line,
Just waiting for bread?
Once I built a railroad, I made it run,
Made it run against time.
Once I built a railroad, now its doneBrother can you spare a dime?”
Song lyrics, “Brother Can You Spare a Dime?”
Looking for a Place to Live
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
Americans lost their jobs, ran through their savings,
sold furniture, pawned jewelry, and moved; many
ended on the streets
Hoovervilles – makeshift shantytowns of tents, and
shacks built on public land or vacant lots
Hoovervilles
• When the government failed to provide
relief, President Hoover did not believe the
government should help and was blamed
for the intolerable economic and social
conditions.
• The shantytowns that cropped up across
the nation became known as Hoovervilles.
• This is a REAL school during the depression. Notice
the students are sitting on logs and that a garbage
can is helping to support the ceiling.
• New York City. Look at the make-shift shacks people
lived in through the winter. Do you think these
shacks had heat?
• Some lived in tents. (Notice that this family is living in
their car, as well.)
• Some people hopped on freight trains to get from
town to town--a terribly dangerous way to travel.
• Look at this billboard. Many towns would not allow
travelers to stay because they didn’t even have
enough jobs for their own citizens.
Poverty Devastates Rural America
Commodity Prices Plunge
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Crop prices fell and debts increase again for farmers
Tenant Farmers – working for bigger landowners
rather them for themselves
Farmers were also faced with drought
They were unable to pay their bills and land was
foreclosed they were force to leave
The Dust Bowl

Result of over-farming in the Great Plains
 Use
soil too much, dry it out
 Turns to dust; easily whipped up in to huge dust storms
 Chokes out crops
 Poor air quality, living conditions
 Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Texas, New Mexico
The Great Plains Becomes a Dust Bowl

Dust Bowl – high plains regions of Texas, Oklahoma,
Kansas, New Mexico, and Colorado
Cont…
Dust Bowl
• 1930s Great Plains
suffer huge dust
storms that wipe out
almost all farms. Most
of these people were
forced to migrate
West to California and
Oregon.
• A dust storm approaching a small town in Texas.
Look at how big it is.
Desperation Causes Migration
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Okies – Dust Bowl refugees, regardless of their
states of origin
Up to 800,000 people migrated out of Missouri,
Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas (looking for jobs)
• Many people left their hometowns to try and
find work. Many traveled across the country.
• A family that couldn’t afford a car, so they walked
from town to town looking for work.
Few Americans Escape Hard Times
The Depression Attacks Family Life
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Hoover coined the term depression because he
thought it sounded better then “panic” or “crisis”
Men felt they had betrayed their families, once
“breadwinners” lost their familial status.
If employed they felt guilty for their luck while
many of their friends and family suffered
Women and children suffered too. Women “made
due,” children roamed free
Minorities Suffer Hardships
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Minorities were the last to be hired and first to be
fired
Blacks used resources like family and religion to
cope
“The Negro was born in depression, It didn’t mean too much to him,
The Great American Depression, as you call it. There was no such
thing. The best he could be was a janitor or a porter or shoeshine
boy. It only became official when it hit the white man.”
Cont…

Repatriation – efforts by local, state and federal
governments to encourage or coerce Mexican
immigrants and their naturalized children to return
to Mexico
Key Concepts
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How did the Great Depression affect the lives of
urban and rural Americans?
How did the Great Depression Affect American
cities in the early 1930s?
How did the Dust Bowl make life even more difficult
for farmers on the Great Plains?
How did the depression take a toll on women,
children, and minorities in America?
SECTION 3
Hoover’s Response Fails
Cautious Response to Depression Fails
Hoover Turns to Volunteerism
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Though Hoover did not cause the Great Depression
he worked tirelessly to solve the nations problems
Hoover simultaneously called for the government to
reduce taxes, lower interest rates, and create
public-works programs
He asked wealthy Americans to give more to
charities
Volunteerism Fails to Bring Relief
Volunteerism did not work
 Businesses cut wages and laid off workers, and
farmers boosted production because it was in the
best interests of their families
 Localism – the policy whereby problems could best
be solved at local and state levels
 Hoover also
favored “rugged
individualism”

Hoover Adopts More Activist Policies

Hoovervilles and homelessness were on the rise,
trucks pulled by horse or mule were called “Hoover
wagons,” campfires “Hoover heaters,” cardboard
boxes “Hoover houses.”
Cont…
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Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) –
passed in 1932, it gave more than a billion dollars
of government loans to railroads , business, and
banks
Trickle-Down economics – the idea that money
poured into the top of the economic pyramid will
trickle down to the base
Cont…

Hoover Dam – “Boulder Dam,” construction brought
much needed employment to the Southwest
Americans Protest Hoover’s Failures
Some Urge Radical Change

Some thought the answer to the country’s problems
was the rejection of capitalism and the acceptance
of socialism or communism.
The Bonus Army Marches on
Washington


World War I veterans seeking the bonus Congress
had promised them (in 1945) converged on the
Washington D.C. demanding early payment in
1931
Bonus Army – name given to these veterans
Hoover Orders the Bonus Army Out

Douglas MacArthur – (General) along with federal
troops were asked by Hoover to “surround the
affected area and clear it without delay”