Chapter 25: The Great Depression
I.
The Coming of the Great depression
A. The Great Crash
Between May 1928 and Sept. 1929, the average price of stocks increased over 40%
 There was a widespread speculative fever that grew steadily more intense
 Brokerage firms began encouraging the mania by recklessly offering easy credit
 On October 29, “Black Tuesday”, all efforts to save the market failed
o sixteen million shares of stock were traded
B. Causes if the Depression
 A number of different factors accounts for the severity of the crisis
o lack of diversification in the American economy; prosperity depended on a few basic industries,
notably construction and automobiles
o Maldistribution of purchasing power and a weakness in consumer demand
o Credit structure of the economy: farmers were deeply in debt small banks were in constant trouble in
the 1920s as their customers defaulted on loans
o Fourth factor contributing to the coming of the Depression was America’s position in international
trade- declining exports
o International debt structure that had emerged in the aftermath of World War I
 The collapse of the international debt structure was one of the reasons the Depression spread to Europe
C Progress of the Depression
 over 9,000 American banks either went bankrupt or closed their doors between 1930 and 1933
 Members of the Federal Reserve board raised interest rates in 1931, which contracted the money supply even
further
 By 1932, 25 percent of the American work force was unemployed ; another third experienced cuts in wages or
hours, or both
II.
The American People in Hard Times
A. Unemployment and Relief
 Most Americans had been taught to believe that every individual was responsible for his or her own fate, that
unemployment was and poverty were signs of personal failure
 Breadlines stretched for blocks and people sifted through garbage cans for scraps of food or waited outside
kitchen restaurants
 A third of all American farmers lost their land
 The “Dust Bowl” began to experience a steady decline in rainfall and an accompanying increase in heat
 “Black blizzards” swept thru plains, blotting out the sun and suffocating livestock
 Hundreds of thousands of families from the Dust Bowl traveled to California
B. African Americans and the Depression
 Experienced more unemployment, homelessness, malnutrition, and disease than most whites
 Whites used intimidation and violence to drive blacks from jobs
 NAACP began to work diligently to win a position for blacks within the emerging labor movement
C. Mexican Americans in Depression America
 Some became agricultural migrants but lived in urban areas- California, New Mexico, and Arizona
 Half a million Chicanos left the U.S. for Mexico in the first years of the Depression
 Hispanics generally had no access to American Schools and many hospitals refused them admission
D. Asian Americans in Hard Times
 Younger Nisei organized Japanese American Democratic Clubs in several cities
 Chinese Americans continued to work in Chinese-owned laundries and restaurants
E. Women and the Workplace in the Great Depression
 There was a strong belief that no woman whose husband was employed should accept a job
 By the end of the Depression, 20 percent more women were working than had been doing so at the beginning
 Black women suffered massive unemployment because of a great reduction of domestic service jobs
 Women did achieve some significant gains in the early years of the New Deal
 By the end of the 1930s, American feminism had reached its lowest ebb in nearly a century
F. Depressing Families
 The Depression also eroded the strength of many family units: there was a decline in the divorce rate, but
largely because divorce was too expensive and marriage and birth rates declined
III.
The Depression and the American Culture
A. Depression and Values
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