CHAPTER 25
The Great Depression
CHAPTER SUMMARY
By the end of the 1920s, a decade-long economic boom had raised the expectations of more than a
few Americans that poverty would soon be vanquished from the nation. This optimism proved both
illusionary and harmful to society. When the stock market collapsed in October 1929, what should
have been a wake-up call to the public and national leaders was instead treated as a serious, but
temporary, downturn. Few leaders in business or government (and many were in both) saw any
reason for a fundamental change in the federal government’s laissez-faire economic policies. In the
months that followed, as the economy continued to sink, the theme of President Herbert Hoover’s
administration was decidedly “stay the course.” The causes of the Great Depression were complex;
the consequences are difficult to fathom. Within four years, at least one of every four Americans
was without a job, and many of those still employed had seen their wages and hours slashed.
Nothing in the nation’s institutions was equipped to adequately respond to this crisis. Where they
existed, local and private social welfare programs were quickly overwhelmed. President Hoover’s
call for voluntary cooperation and community service had little substantive effect. In fact, Hoover’s
decision to hold to high tariffs and World War I debt collection only worsened what was an
international depression, thereby adding to America’s own economic woes.
Despite the immense suffering and upheaval caused by the Depression, and its many strains
on the family, most Americans held to traditional beliefs and desires. Certainly radical solutions
gained in popularity, but the nation proved, by and large, to be both resilient and conservative. This
was the case for middle- and working-class white Americans. It was also true for American
minorities, whose woes and sufferings were far greater. But staying with traditional values did not
mean that Americans were passive or did not desire action from their elected representatives. By
1932, World War I veterans were marching in Washington, demanding an early payment of their
veterans’ bonus. Many farmers were protesting and some were on strike. And millions of voters
expressed their disapproval with President Hoover by voting against him in as large a number as
those who had voted for him just four years before. The Democrat Franklin Delano Roosevelt was
swept into office promising a “new deal” for the nation. In 1932, neither the public nor Roosevelt
was sure just what that meant.
OBJECTIVES
A thorough study of Chapter 25 should enable the student to understand:
1. The reasons for the stock market crash of October 1929 and its relationship to the onset of the
Great Depression
2. The domestic and international causes of the Great Depression
3. The reasons for the severity and persistence of the Depression and it effects on business and
industry
4. The problems facing the unemployed and the inadequacy of public and private relief
5. The particular problems of farmers in the Dust Bowl
6. The themes of popular culture during the 1930s found in radio, the movies, and literature
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7. The rise of the radical Left during the 1930s
8. The impact of the Depression on minorities and the demographic changes that resulted
9. The effects of the Depression on the activities of women and the status of the American
family
10. The reasons for the failure of President Hoover to effectively combat the Depression
11. The campaign platform of Franklin Roosevelt in 1932
MAIN THEMES
1. How the underlying weaknesses of the American economy contributed to the Great
Depression and how the stock market crash touched it off
2. That neither the efforts of local and private relief agencies nor the spirit of “rugged
individualism” expressed in the policies and attitudes of the Hoover administration were able
to halt the spiral of rising unemployment and declining production
3. How the economic pressures of the Depression affected the popular culture and political
ideas of the American people
4. Why Franklin D. Roosevelt was swept into the White House in 1932
POINTS FOR DISCUSSION
1. List and explain the main factors that contributed to the Great Depression. Why has the stock
market crash been described as the trigger to the Depression? Which cause do you think is
most to blame? Why?
2. What message did Herbert Hoover convey to the public regarding the Great Depression?
3. Why were farmers in the South and Midwest hit particularly hard during the 1930s? What
were their responses?
4. What did the Great Depression mean to typical Americans? What happened to their living
standard and lifestyle? Who suffered the most? The least?
5. Analyze the impact of the Great Depression on American race relations, women and
feminism, and family structure and behavior. What American values held up during this
crisis?
6. Discuss the impact of the Great Depression on American popular culture. What seem to have
been the main desires of Americans who listened to radios, went to movies, or read books
and magazines? What were the criticisms and praises of American society expressed in the
popular culture?
7. Why were American radicals unable to make greater gains during the Great Depression?
What were the relative strengths and weaknesses of American radicalism during the 1930s?
In general, what did most Americans appear to want from their government?
8. What principles had governed President Hoover’s public life? How did they guide his
presidency? Were they adequate to the challenge? Why or why not? Might they have been
adequate if he had more time to govern?
9. Why did Franklin D. Roosevelt win the presidency in 1932? Was he calling for great
changes? Why or why not?
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MAP EXERCISE
1. Identify the states carried by Herbert Hoover and those carried by Franklin D. Roosevelt in
the election of 1932.
INTERPRETATIVE QUESTIONS BASED ON MAPS AND TEXT
1. Why did the nation so thoroughly reject Herbert Hoover? What was expected from
Roosevelt?
2. What normally Republican parts of the country voted for Roosevelt in 1932? What does that
signify about the seriousness of the Depression?
LIBRARY EXERCISE
The following exercise will require students to consult a historical atlas and other sources found
in most college libraries. Using these library resources and the text, they should be able to answer
the following:
1. Identify the areas included in the Dust Bowl and explain why those areas were so afflicted.
How did climatic forces combine with farming techniques and economic distress to cause the
migration? Trace the migration route to California and identify the parts of that state
occupied by the Okies and other migrants. What long-term effect did the migration have on
California? How did it affect Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, and the surrounding Dust Bowl
territory?
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Lester V. Chandler, America’s Greatest Depression (1970)
Roger Daniels, The Bonus March (1971)
Michael Denning, The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth
Century (1997)
Glen H. Elder, Jr., Children of the Great Depression (1974)
Martin Fausold, The Presidency of Herbert C. Hoover (1978)
John Kenneth Galbraith, The Great Crash (1954)
James N. Gregory, American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California
(1989)
Joan Jenson and Lois Scharf, eds., Decades of Discontent: The Women’s Movement, 1920-1940
(1983)
Charles P. Kindleberger, The World Depression, 1929-1939 (1973)
Robert S. McElvaine, ed., Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters From the Forgotten
Man (1983)
David P. Peeler, Hope Among Us Yet: Social Criticism and Social Thought in the Depression
Years (1987)
Richard Pells, Radical Visions and American Dreams: Culture and Social Thought in the
Depression Years (1973)
Thomas Schatz, The Genius of the System: Hollywood Film Making in the Studio Era (1988)
Bernard Sternsher, rev. ed., Hitting Home: The Great Depression in Town and Country (1989)
Joan Hoff Wilson, Herbert Hoover: Forgotten Progressive (1975)
Donald Worster, Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s (1979)
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For Internet resources, practice questions, references to additional books and films, and more, see
this book’s Online Learning Center at www.mhhe.com/unfinishednation5.
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