The Great Depression
Presidents of the 1920’s
• Warren Harding
“Return to Normalcy”
• Republican
• Elected 1920
• Died in office
• Calvin Coolidge
“The business of
America is
Business”
• Herbert Hoover
• Republican
• Elected 1928
• Republican
• Stock Market Crash
• Harding’s VicePresident
Reelected 1924
Widespread Unemployment
and Poverty
• Unemployment rose
to about 25%
• Poor people left out
of the boom were
especially hard hit
• Foreclosure
The Dust Bowl
• Farmers overproduced and
eroded topsoil
• Drought struck
• Soil turned to dust ( no
grasses keep in moisture)
• Many people die of
suffocation from inhaling
dust
• Others migrated from the
Great Plains region
John Steinbeck
• Author
• Wrote about many of
the hardships faced
during the Great
Depression
• Shantytowns
Hoovervilles
• Term coined by
Democrats during the
1932 political campaign
• President Hoover
blamed for the bad
economic conditions
Labor Unions
• Labor Unions became
increasingly militant
• Despite declining membership
during the 20’s and early 30’s,
• National Labor Relations Act
(Wagner Act) of 1935
- Unions gained Collective
Bargaining rights
Political Unrest
(growing
militancy in
labor unions)
Unemployment
and
Homelessness
Impact of
the Great
Depression
Collapse of
financial
system(bank
Closings)
Decline in
demand of
Goods
Farm
Foreclosures
and
Migration
The New Deal