The Great Depression: Life During
the Depression and The
Government’s Response
US History: Spiconardi
Hard Times for Americans
• Hardships Americans Faced
– Unemployment
• Unemployment rate sky rockets from 3% in 1929 to 25% in 1933
Hard Times for Americans
• Family Life
– Many fathers left families to find
work elsewhere
– Children couldn’t go to school
• Why?
– School boards didn’t have money to
keep schools open
– Marriage rate decreases
– Fewer children per family
• Why?
– Parents couldn’t afford to feed large
families
Hard Times for Americans
• Shanty towns
• Many Americans lost their homes so they built shanty
towns
– Shanty towns  slum settlements constructed by impoverished
people out of scrap materials
• The shanty towns were referred to as Hoovervilles
– President Herbert Hoover was blamed for not helping suffering
Americans enough
Hooverville in Seattle
Hard Times for Americans
• Deterioration of Health
– Many Americans suffered from malnutrition
• Undernourished people fall more easily to disease
Americans on line
at soup kitchen
Americans making a back run to withdraw their savings
Man in Manhattan lying down on a pier
“Migrant Mother” – mother of seven children
struggling through the Great Depression in
California
Men line up for free bread from the Grocers’ Association.
A man trying to sell his car after losing his money in the Stock Market
An unemployed man tries to sell apples on
the street to earn money
Why are there so many
apples that have been
eaten on the ground?
What does the cartoon
show about life during the
Great Depression?
Explain why this locality’s chamber of commerce posted
this bill
Explain the juxtaposition between the advertisement and
the food line
Men in Chicago
advertising
themselves for
a job. How do
they market
themselves?
Unemployment march in New Jersey
Children picketing a construction company
Homework
• Choose one of the following three photos.
Place yourself in that photograph and either
write a diary entry or create a back story.
– 1-page
– Typed or neatly written in blue or black ink
– Proper heading (no writing in the top margin)