



Herbert Hover
“Ours is a land rich in
resources; stimulating in its
glorious beauty; filled with
millions of happy homes;
blessed with comfort and
opportunity…I have no fears
for the future of our country
it is bright with hope.”

Credit
o 1929 – number of
purchases made on credit
is 6 times higher than in
1915
o $ 7 million purchases on
credit
o Federal Government
encouraged borrowing with
low interest rates
o Consumers ignored
warnings about the
dangers of this



Americans were confident in the economy
of the 1920s and was reflected in the
stock market
Investors poured millions of dollars into
the market…as demand increased so did
stock prices
Playing the Market
o Bull Market – upward trend in stock
prices
o Bear Market – downward trend in stock
prices
o Margin Buying – purchasing stocks
with borrowed money
o Stock Speculation – buying and selling
of stocks to make a quick profit

Black Thursday – October 24, 1929
o Large number of investors suddenly began to sell their shares
o Dumping of shares…causes prices to plunge

Black Tuesday – October 29, 1929
o 16 million shares of stock dumped on the market
o Prices dropped even lower

Brokers contacted customers who bought on margin and
demanded cash…thousands faced to sell stocks at huge losses
o Most investors ruined
o Most values cut in half
o $30 billion lost on stocks…exceeds the cost of WWI
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJpLMvgUXe8
• From 3:40 to 9:00 minutes

Banking Crisis
o Large banks suffered significant loses
o Borrowers default on home loans
o No cash reserves and forced to close
o Fearful customers panicked and tried to withdraw savings…causes
even more bank failures

Business Failures
o Lost money in stock market as well
o Consumers unwilling or unable to buy products…not buying on
credit anymore
o Forced to trim inventory, limit production, lay off employees

Global Depression
o Economic troubles in Europe &
other parts of the world
because of massive war debts
from WWI
o World trade declines…no
consumers for American
products
o Smoot – Hawley Tariff 1930 –
highest tariff on imported
goods in U.S. history, protects
American goods at home, but
not abroad

Income Gap & Consumer Debt
o Between 1923 and 1929 the
wealthiest 1% population’s
income increases by 63% while
the poorest 93% decreases by
4%
o Most people do not have the
buying power to boost the
economy

The Business Cycle
o The regular ups and downs of
business in a free enterprise
economy

Between 1929 and 1933
o 9,000 banks closed
o Almost 50,000 business went under (1930 & 1931)
o Business investments in industrial construction declined from $23.3
o
o
o
o
billion to $10.1 billion
Automobile industry’s earnings dropped 40%
U.S. gross national product declines from $103.1 billion to $58 billion
1932 – unemployment at 23.6 %
People lost money
cannot buy products
industries slow production
layoff workers
leaves even fewer consumers




“My father walked the streets everyday…My mother went to
work. I even worked, playing the piano for dancing class on
Saturday mornings for fifty cents an hour. My mother would
find a few pennies and we would go to the grocer and wait until
he threw out the stuff that was beginning to rot. We would pick
out the best rotted potato and greens and carrots that were
already soft. Then we would go to the butcher and a beg for a
marrow bone. And then with the few pennies we would buy a
box of barley, and we’d have soup to last us for three or four
days. I remember she would say to me sometimes, ‘You go out
and do it. I’m too ashamed’”
- Clara Hancox (11 years old)






1929…1.5 million
unemployed, by
1933…15 million
50% of Chicago,
80% in Toledo, Ohio
“Everybody in
America is looking
for work” Langston
Hughes
Wages fell by 33%
Companies cut
hours
Immigration drops
“We saw the city at it's worst. One
vivid moment of those dark days
we shall never forget”
“We saw a crowd of some fifty men
fighting over a barrel of garbage
which had been set outside the
back door of a restaurant
American citizens fighting for
scraps of food like animals’”
- Louise V. Armstrong
Shanty Towns

Shanty Towns
“Hoovervilles”
o Make shifts towns
on the outskirts of
town, abandoned
lots and parks
o Cardboard boxes
scrap lumber and
metal
o The only alternative
to living on the
streets
Shanty Towns
Hunger

Hunger
o
o
Plenty of food on the
farms, no way to
transport
Triggers
malnourishment, riots
and looting
Hunger
Breadlines
Breadlines
Hunger

8 minute video clip from
The Century Series
o http://www.youtube.com/wat
ch?v=luWcTm2oRrY

Harder to sell products
o Shrinking demand…prices drop
o Some farmers forced to let foods rot in the fields
o Slaughter livestock that they cannot afford to feed
o “While Oregon sheep raisers fed mutton to the buzzards, I saw men
picking for meat scraps in the garbage cans of New York and
Chicago”

Cannot keep up mortgage payments
o Foreclosure sales
o Tenant farmers
o Midwest had plenty, Southerners face devastation

Pressure for Mexican Migrant Farmers to leave

Interviews with Great
Depression Survivors
o https://www.youtube.com/w
atch?v=polnEBTnQ6g

Family Strains
o Hardship on families…many break apart
o Marriage rate falls dramatically
o Birthrates decline
o “Do you realize how many people in my generation are not
married?...it wasn’t that we didn’t have a chance. I was going with
someone when the Depression hit. We probably would have gotten
married…Suddenly he was laid off. It hit him like a ton of bricks.
And he just disappeared.”

Difficult for women
o Trying to put food on the table, making clothes and shoes last
o Make their own soap and bread


“What the country needs is a
good big laugh. There seems to
be a condition of hysteria. If
someone could get off a good
joke every ten days I think our
troubles would be over.”


Economic recovery through individual effort and not from
government assistance.
Opposes Direct Relief
o Federal relief would create a large bureaucracy
o Inflate the federal budget
o Reduce self respect of people
o Rugged Individualism – success comes through individual effort
and private enterprise
o Private charities and local communities should provide relief

Encourages Volunteerism
o Community Chest, the Red Cross, the Salvation Army, YMCA
o Distribute information about how to get help to people

Stimulating the
Economy
o Believes something
should be done
o Urges businesses to
maintain pre-depression
level of production,
employment, and wages
o Several publics works
programs…$800 million
o Example: Hoover Dam

Coping with the Farming Crisis
o Federal Farm Board
• Help farmers to help themselves
• Develops Cooperatives…buy things in bulk, store crops and wait for higher
prices

Home Loan Bank Board
o Money for low interest mortgages

Reconstruction Finance Corporation
o $2 Billion tax payer money to stabilize banks, insurance companies,
railroad companies and other institutions
o “Trickle Down”

Government is more active than ever…
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Herbert Hoover
FDR Inaugural Address
https://www.youtube.com/watc
h?v=nHFTtz3uucY


Mid 30s severe drought struck Great Plains, winds picked up the loose
and dry topsoil, turning a 50 million acre region into a wasteland


“NO JOBS in California. IF YOU are looking for work KEEP OUT!”

Farmers had lost their
land…packed up and hit the
road
o West on Route 66
o California & other parts of the
West Coast
o “Okies” – from Oklahoma
• https://www.youtube.com/wa
tch?v=8MS4gFPr2Hk
o Found fierce competition

Influential American folk musician
of the first half of the 20th century
o This Land…
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaI
5IRuS2aE


Folk ballads, traditional/children’s
songs, and improvised works,
incorporating political commentary
Closely identified with the Dust Bowl
and Great Depression of the 1930s


Americans ready for change…people were suffering from lack of work,
food and hope

20th Amendment not ratified until Feb of 1933
o Changes inauguration from March to January

During the waiting period, works with “Brain Trust”
o Select group pf professors, lawyers, and journalist
o Develop polices for his new administration

New Deal
o “a new deal for the American people”
o Focuses
• RELIEF for the needy
• RECOVERY for the economy
• REFORM for financial institutions


Intense activity from
March 9 to June 16,
1933
Congress passes more
that 15 major pieces of
New Deal legislation



By 1933, widespread banking failures had caused
Americans to lose faith in the banking system.
March 5…one day after taking office, Roosevelt declares a
bank holiday and closed all the banks to prevent further
withdrawals
Emergency Banking Relief Act
o Treasury Department to inspect all banks
o Sound? Can open at once
o Insolvent? (cannot pay debts) Remained closed
o Need Help? Can receive loans


Rural Assistance
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
o Raise crop prices by lowering production
o Government would pay farmers to leave certain amount of acreage
unseeded
o Issues with hunger and destroying food

Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EQH1ZlbCd0


Providing Work Assistance
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
o Put young men 18 to 25 to work building
roads, developing parks, planting trees,
and helping in soil erosion and flood
control projects
o Example
• 217 million trees planted
• Create a wind break that stretched through
the Great Plains from Texas to Canada

National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA)
o Provides money to states to create jobs
chiefly in construction of schools and
community buildings


Food, Clothing, and Shelter
Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC)
o Provides government loans to homeowners who face foreclosure
because they cannot make the payments

Federal Housing Administration (FHA)
o Provides loans for home mortgages and home repairs

Federal Emergency Relief Administration
o $500 million dollars given for direct relief for the needy
o Furnish food and clothing to unemployed, the aged and the ill
o Support work programs

FDR agrees to Deficit Spending, but is reluctant
o Spending more money than the government receives in revenue
o Necessary evil to be used in economic crisis

New Deal does not end the Great Depression and is
criticized
o Liberal critics
• New Deal did not go far enough to help the poor and reform the
economic system
o Conservative critics
• FDR spent too much on direct relief and used the New Deal programs
to control business and social the economy
• NIRA and AAA interfered with the free market economy

By 1935…economy has improved, but gains were not as
great as FDR had hoped
o Unemployment is high
o Production levels still lagging

New Deal enjoyed widespread popularity, FDR launches a
Second New Deal
o Calls on Congress to provide more extensive relief for both farmers
and workers

1936 Election
o FDR re-elected


Farmers
Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment Act
o Pays farmers for cutting production of soil depleting crops, rewarded
farmers for practicing soil conservation methods

Second Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
o Includes many of the features except no processing tax to pay for
farm subsidies (unconstitutional)

Resettlement Administration
o Monetary loans to small farmers to buy land

Farm Security Administration (FSA)
o $1 billion to help tenant farmers become landholders, camps for
migrant farm workers (from video yesterday)


Working People
Works Progress Administration
o Create as many jobs as possible as quickly as possible
o Spent $11 billion to give more than 8 million workers, most
unskilled, jobs
•
•
•
•
850 airports
651,000 miles of roads and streets
125,000 public buildings
Women’s sewing groups made 300 million garments for the needy
o Criticized as a make-work project
o Gave working people a sense of hope and purpose
• “It was really great, you worked, you got a paycheck and you had some
dignity. Even when a man raked leaves, he got paid, he had some
dignity.”


Youth
National Youth Administration
(NYA)
o Provide education jobs,
counseling, and recreation for
young people
o Provides student aid to high
school, college, and graduate
students in exchange for
students working part time
positions at their schools


Labor Relations
Wagner Act (National Labor
Relations Act)
o Prohibits unfair labor practices
o No threatening workers, firing
workers for union activity, interfering
union organization

Fair Labor Standards Act
o Maximum hours
o Minimum wage
o Rules for workers 16 and under
o No hazardous work for workers under
18

Social Security Act (SSA)
o Old age insurance for retirees 65 or older
and their spouses
o Unemployment compensation system
o Aid to families with dependent children and
people with disabilities
o Not a total pension system or a complete
welfare system, provides substantial
benefits to millions of Americans

Rural Electrification
Administration (REA)
o Brings electricity to isolated
areas
o 1935 - 12.6%
1945 48%
1949 – 90%

Public Utility Holding
Company Act
o Takes on corruption in
industry
o Outlaws ownership of utilities
by multiple holding
companies

Financing the New Deal
o Higher taxes for the wealthy
o FDRs response that it would unpopular for the few, but benefit the
majority

Opposition from the Supreme Court
o 11 out of 16 of the programs were decreed unconstitutional in
cases heard by the Supreme Court
o FDR had tried to impose the power of the federal government on
state governments – and this was unconstitutional

Intrusiveness of Government
o Socialism/Communism rising Italy and Germany, Americans are
scared
o Many people felt very strongly that government should not intrude
into matters of commerce and people's personal lives


President Roosevelt is best
known for leading the country
through the Great
Depression. The New Deal
was a set of policies designed
to provide “relief, recovery
and reform” to alleviate the
suffering of millions of
Americans.

In your table groups, you will attempt to answer the
following question:
“Was the New Deal a Success or Failure?”
Document A


Read
Is there any information to
support a Success or
Failure Argument?

Who wrote this?
o Identify the author’s position on the historical event

What is the author’s perspective?
o Identify and evaluate the author's purpose in producing the
document

When, Where, Why was it written?
o Hypothesize what the author will say before reading the document

Is it reliable? Why? Why not?
o Evaluate the source’s trustworthiness by considering genre,
audience and purpose
Document A




Identify the author’s
position on the historical
event
Identify and evaluate the
author's purpose in
producing the document
Hypothesize what the
author will say before
reading the document
Evaluate the source’s
trustworthiness by
considering genre,
audience and purpose
“Was the New Deal a Success or Failure?”



Team A will argue: YES, the New Deal was a success
Team B will argue: NO, the New Deal was a failure
With your team, read the documents in the New Deal
Document Set. Find five pieces of evidence which support
side.

As you develop your arguments, use as many of the
following possible sources of evidence as you can from the
New Deal documents set
o Document A – Fireside Chat
o Document B – African Americans and the New Deal
o Document C – Interview with a Cotton Mill Worker
o Document D – Hot Lunches for a Million School Children
o Document E – Unemployment Statistics
o Document F – Song
o Document G – Whither the Indian
“Was the New Deal a Success or Failure?”

Team A will present arguments. All teammates must
present at least one argument
o Team B writes down Team A’s arguments and then repeats back
them to Team A.

Team B will present arguments. All teammates must
present at least one argument
o Team A writes down Team B’s arguments and then repeats back
them to Team B.
“Was the New Deal a Success or Failure?”


Everyone CAN ABANDON their positions. Groups of 4
attempt to develop a consensus.
Pick three strongest arguments






Grim experiences of migrants and others in the areas
provided powerful subject matter for documentary film
makers and photographers
Images of the slumped shoulders of unemployed men, the
staring faces of hungry children, and the worried
expressions of exhausted women convey the human
suffering of the era
Dorothea Lange




Works Progress Administration

Federal Project Number One $300 Million
o Program sought to encourage
pride in American culture by
providing work to artists in the
fields of writing, theatre, music
and the visual arts
o Hired unemployed artists and
designers to produce posters for
the New Deal programs, teach
art in public schools and paint
murals on public buildings



John Steinbeck – The Grapes of Wrath (1939)
o Gripping picture of the Great Depression. Story follows
the fortunes of a poor family as they travel from the
Dust Bowl region to California

Zora Neale Hurston – Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937)
o Black woman’s search for fulfillment in rural Florida

Richard Wright – Native Son (1940)
o Grim picture of black urban life. Journey of a young African
American man lost in a racist world

Margaret Mitchell – Gone with the Wind (1936)
o Best selling novel of the decade. A sweeping story of the Old South
set during the Civil War and Reconstruction. Depression-era
readers could relate to the turmoil faced by the main character
Scarlett O’Hara.

Offered as an Escape from Troubles
o Marx Brothers comedy Duck Soup (1933)
o Gold Diggers of 1933 – “We’re in the Money” – most optimistic
tune of the decade!

Tackle Social Issues
o Mr. Deeds Goes to Town (1936) and Mr. Smith Goes to Washington
(1939) – criticized the wealthy and politicians
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=54xWo7ITFbg

The Wizard of Oz
o

http://www.youtube.co
m/watch?v=VNugTWHn
Sfw&feature=related
Gone with the Wind
o A sweeping story of
the Old South set
during the Civil War
and
Reconstruction.

Plays dealt with the nation’s labor and class struggles
o The Petrified Forrest (1935) – ideas of destroying the country
o The Little Foxes (1939) – attacks upper class greed

By the end of the decade, focused on traditional American
values
o Our Town (1938)
o The Time of Your Life (1939)



American traditions and sounds
“Billy the Kid” – popular song
Country Music
o Grand Ole Opry – popular radio show

Gospel Music
o Traditional spirits and jazz
o “Precious Lord Take My Hand”
o Some ministers object to the hand clapping and stomping


Jazz continues to be popular
Swing – smooth big band style popular in dance halls
o Duke Ellington – “It Don’t Mean a Thing If You Ain’t Got That Swing”
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg
o Benny Goodman




American Folk revival in 1930s
Woody Guthrie is displaced by the Dust Bowl
No formal training in music, but describes the experiences
of common people in his music
Ain’t Got No Home
o http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MfMzsa03E3E

You know this one…
o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaI5IRuS2aE
Jacob Lawrence
 One of the best known
20th Century African
American Artists
 Daily lives of African
American heroes
o Frederick Douglas
o Harriet Tubman
Georgia O’Keefe
 Look
to rural America
 Regionalists – group
from the Midwest
 Grant Wood –
American Gothic
 Anna
“Grandma”
Moses – takes up
painting at age 70
 Handmade
quilts &
wood carvings become
popular

What were two causes of the Great Depression
o Cause (2)
o Two underlying factors (2 for each)
• Site one specific example of how it effected the great depression

President Hoover believed in “rugged individualism.”
o What does this mean?
o Who did he believe people should rely on during the Great
Depression?
o Why did he not believe that the government should be responsible
to help the American people who were suffering?

What did the New Deal programs aim to provide to the
American people during the Great Depression?