"The Great Depression: A
Nation in Crisis"
Written by David Goldfield
Outline
• Warm-up Questions
• Reading Strategy:
Analyze Graphs
• Article
• Assignment
Warm-Up Questions
Reading Strategy
Reading One: The Great Depression: A Nation in Crisis
Unemployed men outside Al Capone's soup
kitchen in Chicago during the Great Depression
1931
5
• Prosperity: the state of thriving, especially in terms of
wealth, success, and well-being
• Manipulations: Controlling or influencing something
in a skillful or sometimes deceptive way.
• Plunge: To drop suddenly and steeply
• Evaporate: To disappear or vanish, especially quickly.
Do you think the rise of remote work and
online platforms reflects a new kind of
economic "bubble" in the post-pandemic era?
evaporate
• Distribution: the way something is
shared or spread out.
• Collapse: a sudden failure or
breakdown.
• Recovery: the process of returning
to a normal or better state.
1. As college students, how do you think income
inequality or economic instability affects
access to education and opportunities?
2. Do you think large corporations today hold
too much power, similar to the oligopolies in
the 1920s? How does this affect consumers
and smaller businesses?
Oligopolies
Have you ever faced a situation
where something important in
your life plummeted (e.g.,
grades, opportunities) or
skyrocketed (e.g., success,
costs)? How did you handle it?
• Plummet: to fall or drop suddenly and steeply.
• Skyrocket: to rise or increase rapidly and dramatically.
skyrocket
plummet
skyrocket
• Stifling: preventing something from happening or growing; suffocating.
• Dispossessed: people who have lost their homes, land, or possessions.
• Compensation: payment or something given to make up for a loss or service.
In what ways did the migration of
dispossessed farmers challenge
the idea of the “American Dream”
during the Depression?
Tickle-down Economy
What do you think the "trickle-down"
approach meant to ordinary people
during the Depression?
• Unprecedented: never done or known before
• Relief: aid or assistance provided, especially in times of hardship or need.
• Intervention: The act of coming between to influence or take action, especially to resolve a situation.
• Indispensable:
something that
cannot be done
without or replaced.
paraphrasing
Assignment
The (1)_________ of the 1920s abruptly ended with the (2)_________ collapse of the
stock market in October 1929. Financial manipulations and speculative behavior
contributed to the plunge in market confidence, wiping out years of gains. Much of the
nation’s wealth (3)________, leading to a stifling economic depression characterized
by the unequal (4)________ of income and wealth. Industrial production
(5)__________, unemployment skyrocketed, and millions of dispossessed families
struggled to survive. With no federal (6)_________ programs in place, relief efforts fell
short of meeting the massive need. President Hoover’s limited (7)__________, such
as the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, failed to spark recovery. In 1932, Franklin
D. Roosevelt’s campaign focused on plans to rebuild the economy from the bottom
up, emphasizing the (8)_________ of the “forgotten man” in national renewal.
evaporated
indispensability
compensation
distribution
interventions
prosperity
plummeted
unprecedented