The Great Depression
Unit VIIIB
AP U.S. History
Fundamental Question
► To
what extent did the Great Depression
maintain continuity and fostered change in
America’s political and economical
structures?
Causes of the Great Depression
►
Political Policies
 “The business of America is
business.”
 Mellon’s Tax Bills
 Fordney-McCumber Tariff
 Dawes Plan and Post-WWI lending
►
Financial Practices
 Installment plans
 “Buying on Margin”
 Crash of 1929
►
Economic Situations
 Agricultural overproduction and
low prices
 Welfare capitalism and consumer
confidence
►
Socioeconomic Conditions
 Top 1% owned 35% of nation’s
wealth
 Bottom 20% owned 4% of nation’s
wealth
The Stock Market and the Crash of 1929
►
Background
 Speculation
 “Buying on Margin”
►
The Crash of 1929
 381.17 (9/3/29)
 Concern over high
stock prices led to
massive sell-off
 Thursday, October 24
►
299.50
 Monday, October 28
►
260.64
 Tuesday, October 29
►
230.07
 41.22 (7/8/32)
Herbert Hoover (R) (1829-1933)
►
►
►
►
►
“Given the chance to go forward with the policies of the last
eight years, we shall soon with the help of God, be in sight
of the day when poverty will be banished from this nation.”
- Inauguration, March 4, 1929
“There is no cause to worry. The high tide of prosperity will
continue.” Sec. Of Treasury Andrew Mellon, Sept. 1929
“While the crash only took place six months ago, I am
convinced we have now passed the worst and with
continued unity of effort we shall rapidly recover.” Pres.
Hoover, May 1, 1930
“The worst is over without a doubt.” Sec. Of Labor James
Davis, June 29, 1930
Hoover’s Economic Philosophy
 Promote voluntarism, restraint, and self-reliance

“If we shall be called upon to endure more of this
period, we must gird ourselves for even greater
effort… The question is whether that history shall be
written in terms of individual responsibility, and the
capacity of the Nation for voluntary cooperative action,
or whether it shall be written in terms of futile attempt
to cure poverty by the enactment of law, instead of
the maintained and protected initiative of our people.”
April 27, 1931
Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930)
► Federal Farm Board
► Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC)
►
Depression by Numbers
►
Dow Jones Industrial
Average
 1929: 381.17
 1932: 41.22
 The average of stock prices
dropped over 90%
►
►
 1929: 659 banks ($200,000,000)
 1930: 1,300 banks (853,000,000)
 1931: 2,294 banks ($1,700,000,000)
►
Price Indices
Unemployment
 1929: 3.2%
 1933: 24.9%
 Unemployment rates higher
in specific regions, among
different groups
►
►
►
 1929: $103.6B
 1933: $56.4B
Manufacturing wages down 60%
 Farmers’ income declined 55%
►
Industrial production
 Down 26% in 1930; 51% by 1932
►
Investments
 $10B in 1929; $1B in 1932
►
Fertility Rates
 1928: 93.8
 1933: 76.3
Toledo, OH: 90%
GDP
Income
 National income fell $80B to $50B
 Salaries declined 40%
 Consumer prices feel 25%
 Wholesale prices fell 32%
►
Bank Failures
►
Suicide Rates
 1920-1928: 12.1
 1929: 18.1
 1930-1940: 15.4
Hoovervilles
Displaced Americans
set up shanty towns
Came to be known as
“Hoovervilles”
Public Reaction to Depression
► Bonus
March
 WWI veterans marched
on D.C. demanding
early payments of
pensions
 Federal troops sent in
to break up
Hoovervilles
Depression through Pictures
The Dust Bowl (1930-1936)
►
Causes
 Overgrazing
 Improper
farming
techniques
 Increased
cultivation
 Drought in
1934
►
Effects
 Dust storms
 Black Sunday April 14, 1935
►
300 million
tons of topsoil
blown across
southern
Plains region
 Migration west
►
►
“Okies”
Mexican
Repatriation
Dust Turns Day Into Night
Election of 1932
►
Franklin Delano
Roosevelt (FDR) (D)
 Campaign promise of a
“new deal” and help for
the “forgotten man”
 New Deal Coalition
►
►
Herbert Hoover (R)
A Realignment Election
 End of the Republican
dominance of the
Fourth Party System
 Begin of the Democrat
dominance of the Fifth
Party System
Fifth Party System (1932-1968)
►
Democrats
 New Deal Coalition
►
►
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►
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►
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Catholics
Jews
Blacks
Progressive Intellectuals
Urban Machines
Populist Farmers
White Southerners
Labor Unions
Low-Income
Immigrants
 Philosophy
Social liberalism/social democracy
► Social justice
► Keynesian economics
►
 Dominated Congress and American
public for the next 36 years
►
Republicans




Pro-business
Economic conservatives
Social conservatives
Northeast, parts of the
Midwest
Franklin D. Roosevelt (D) (1933-1945)
► Great
Depression
► New Deal
► Good Neighbor Policy
► Arsenal of Democracy
► Pearl Harbor
► World War II
FDR’s Message of Hope
►
►
►
FDR had no specific plan for the
Depression
Calming the nation
 “… the only thing we have to
fear is fear itself.”
 Fireside chats
The Three R’s
 Relief
 Recovery
 Reform
►
Brain Trust
 Capable advisers ordered to
experiment, be pragmatic
 “Do something.”
The First New Deal (1933-1934)
FDR’s First Hundred Days
“Alphabet Soup”
►
►
Emergency Banking Act (Bank
Holiday)
Federal Emergency Relief
Administration (FERA)
 Civil Works Administration (CWA)
►
►
►
Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
Agricultural Adjustment
Administration (AAA)
National Industrial Recovery Act
(NIRA)
 Public Works Administration (PWA)
 National Recovery Administration
(NRA)
►
Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
First New Deal (1933-1934)
►
Banking Act of 1933
 Glass-Steagall Act
 Federal Deposit Insurance
Corporation (FDIC)
►
►
►
►
►
►
Gold Reserve Act
Farm Credit
Administration (FCA)
Securities and Exchange
Commission (SEC)
National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB)
Federal Housing
Administration (FHA)
Indian Reorganization Act
21st Amendment (1933)
► 18th
Amendment repealed
 Only Amendment to be ratified
by state conventions
► End
of Prohibition
► Reasons
 Development of black market for
alcohol
 Increased violence due to rise in
organized crime
 Loss of revenue, industry, and
employment
 Speakeasies replaced saloons
The Second New Deal (1935-1938)
►
►
Resettlement Administration (RA)
Works Progress Administration
(WPA)
 National Youth Administration (NYA)
 Federal One
► Federal
Writers Project
► Federal Theatre Project
► Federal Music Project
► Federal Art Project
► Historical Records Survey
►
►
►
►
Rural Electrification Administration
(REA)
Social Security Act (1935)
Wagner Act (1935)
Fair Labor Standards Act (1938)
Federal government
used posters, songs,
advertisements,
literature to promote
and support FDR’s
New Deal programs
among the American
public
Federal One
New Deal Opposition
► “New
Deal is doing too
much.”
 Republicans and
economic/fiscal conservatives
 “Boondoggles”
► “New
Deal is not doing
enough.”
 Father Charles Coughlin
 Senator Huey Long –
“Kingfish”
► Share
the Wealth
 $5000 for every family, $2000
annually
 Heavily tax wealthy
Election of 1936
► Franklin
D.
Roosevelt (D)
► Alfred Landon
(R)
FDR and Court Packing
►
Supreme Court reversed
several New Deal programs
 Schechter Poultry Corp. v.
United States (1935)
► NIRA
unconstitutional
 United States v. Butler
(1936)
► AAA
►
unconstitutional
Justice Reorganization Bill
 Appoint new justices for
every justice over 70
►6
►
additional justices
Subsequent Supreme Court
rulings in favor of New
Deal
 Social Security Act
 Wagner Act
New Deal and Labor
► American
Federation of
Labor (AFL)
 Strengthened and increased
membership
► Congress
of Industrial
Organizations (CIO)
 Organize unskilled laborers
in major industries
 Industrial unionism
► United
(UAW)
Automobile Workers
 Used sit-down strikes to earn
recognition
Escapism
Great Depression in Arts and Entertainment
►
Literature
 John Steinbeck
►
►
►
The Grapes of Wrath
Of Mice and Men
Photography
 Dorothea Lange
►
Music
 Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?
 Woody Guthrie
►
Radio
 Comedies
 Soap operas
►
Movies




The Wizard of Oz
Shirley Temple
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves
Marx Brothers
Escapism
Great Depression in Sports and Recreation
►
Sports
 WPA
► Athletic
facilities
► Athletic educational programs
 Innovation, consolidation, and
sacrifice of professional and
college sports
► College
bowl games
► NFL playoffs
►
Recreation




Games and Monopoly
Gambling
Rodeos
Dance halls and jazz
End of the New Deal
► Roosevelt
Recession
(1937-1938)
 Cutback in deficit
spending and
elimination of some
New Deal programs
► Hatch
Act (1939)
► International Concerns
 Totalitarian
governments spawned
defensive preparations