“Start of the Great Depression”
Skills Activity
1. a) Identify and explain a possible relationship between the information shown in Documents 1
through 6 and the graph shown in Document 7.
b) Why can this trend in consumer debt be a bad thing both for an individual and for the country
as a whole?
2. Using Document 5, calculate the percentage increase in the number of radios owned per 1000
people from 1920 to 1930.
a) approximately 40%
b) approximately 145%
c) approximately 33%
d) approximately 81%
3. Some people did, and still do, buy stocks with money that they borrowed from banks or stock
brokers. This borrowed money becomes part of what is called “consumer debt” – money that
people have borrowed that needs to be paid back to the lender.
a) Which of the following describes the trend that Document 10 indicates regarding this
matter?
1) over time people had increased their tendency to borrow money in order to buy
stocks
2) over time people had not changed their tendency to borrow money to buy stock
3) over time, people had decreased their tendency to borrow money in order to buy
Stocks
b) What is the concept/process called when people buy stock using borrowed money?
c) Why can this process be dangerous for the both and individual investor, other investors and
the overall economy? Hint: Look at the information in Documents 9 and 10.
4. a) Using Document 8, identify which company’s stock decreased by the greatest percentage
between September 3, 1929 and November 13, 1929.
b) At what percentage of its original price was that company’s stock trading?
5. a) Using Documents 11 through 13, identify what the trend was regarding the distribution
(spreading out) of wealth during the 1920’s.
b) How was this trend a partial cause of the massive economic slowdown known as the Great
Depression?
6. a) What is the meaning of the political cartoon in Document 14?
b) Explain who could/may be at fault for the man’s situation.
7. According to Document 15, 1933’s bank failure rate was approximately how many times that
of 1929’s?
a) approximately 5 times as much
b) approximately 6 times as much
c) approximately 7 times as much
d) approximately 8 times as much
8. A mortgage foreclosure means that a bank is taking someone’s property away from them because
that person/family is not keeping up with the required payments. Use Document 16 to support
the claim by some historians and economists that the “Great Depression” had essentially started
almost a full decade before it did for almost everyone else.
9. a) Explain the connection between the data in Documents 17 and 18. How do they help to
explain the cause(s) of the Great Depression?
b) According to these documents when might the bad times of the Great Depression have peaked?
Explain.
10. The data in Document 19 shows something that was a partial cause of the Great Depression.
Explain what is shown by the data. How was all of this a factor in making the Great Depression
worse?
11. Explain the following regarding the political cartoon shown in Document 20:
a) Is its message about stock market positive, neutral, or negative? Explain.
b) Is the cartoon’s content supported or refuted (disproven) by Document 9’s data? Explain.
c) Pick one adjective to describe the stock market (if the political cartoon is accurate).
12. a) According to the political cartoon shown in Document 21, who is to blame for the Great
Depression? Explain.
b) Pick one adjective to describe the apparent cause of the Great Depression (if the political
cartoon is accurate).