2. The Great Depression

3. A depression is a time when industries do not grow and many people are out of work. Our nation has gone through several depressions.

5. What was the Great Depression? Started in 1929. The worst economic crisis of the century. Over 13 million people unemployed.

6. How Did it Happen?

7. Causes of the Great Depression People overspeculated on stocks –Used borrowed $$$ that they could not repay when stock prices crashed. The Federal Reserve failed to prevent the collapse of the banking system. High tariffs (taxes) discouraged international trade.

8. What event marked the beginning of the Great Depression? The Stock Market crashed. Overspeculation on Stocks

9. STOCK MARKET CRASH OF 1929 Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929 Overspeculation on Stocks

10. Stock Market Crash Many stocks purchased on credit. Stock prices fell. Huge sums of money lost. Tuesday, October 29, 1929

11. Federal Reserve failed to prevent the collapse of the banking system. Banks Failed

12. High Tariffs (taxes)

13. (Smoot-Hawley) Tariff This law placed the highest tariffs on goods coming into the country. United States imports and exports dropped very low. This tariff hurt the economies of the United States and Europe.

14. How were the lives of Americans affected by the Great Depression? A large number of banks and businesses failed. ¼ of workers were without jobs. Large numbers of people were hungry and homeless. Farmer’s incomes fell to low levels.

15. Banks & Businesses Failed

16. During the Great Depression: More than 22,000 businesses failed Industrial production dropped by half Thousands of banks failed

17. Unemployment: ¼ (25%) of the working population did not have jobs. Loss of Jobs!

18. People were hungry!

19. People were homeless. “Hoovervilles” Here were all these people living in old rusted-out car bodies.... One family... [was] living in a piano box. This wasn't just a little section, this was maybe 10 miles wide and 10 miles long. People living in whatever they could junk together...."

20. Homeless In 1932, 248,000 people lost their homes. In 1933, 252,000 people lost their homes.

21. “Hoover flags” Empty pockets turned inside out

22. “Hoover blankets” Newspapers with which people covered themselves to protect against the cold

23. “Hoovervilles” The shantytowns the homeless built

24. Shantytowns were areas of homemade shelters that housed homeless people.

25. Factories and mines closed. Banks are worthless. Consumer buying comes to a standstill.

27. What did Americans do to survive homelessness and hunger? Churches & mission groups served meals. Often called the soup line. B. People tried to stay with family or friends. C.Some used whatever they could find to make a shelter. Example: tents, cardboard boxes, tin cans, old cars.

28. “Brother can you spare a dime?”

29. 1932 – AMERICAN DREAMS ARE SHATTERED 14 million Americans are jobless (almost 1/4 the workforce) Banks foreclose on houses and farms No food, no clothes, no jobs Recycled lifestyle

31. Farmers’ income fell to low levels! Dustbowl A traveler noticed a nice new hat by the side of the road, and he stopped to pick it up. Under the hat was a man, buried up to his neck in the dust! As he dug the poor fellow out, the traveler asked if he wanted a ride into town. "No, I'll get there myself," the man replied, "I'm on a horse." (Excerpt from THE DUST BOWL by Tricia Andryszewski, p. 33.)

32. Farmers incomes fell to low levels Farming in the 1930s on the Great Plains was difficult. Farmers faced a global economic slow down and one of the worst and longest droughts in America's history.

33. Without rain, farmers couldn't grow crops to feed their cows and pigs. Without crops or livestock to sell, some farmers could not pay for their land. Farmers incomes fell to low levels

34. The Great Depression changed the lives of people who lived and farmed on the Great Plains. When the dryness, heat, and grasshoppers destroyed the crops. Farmers were left with no money to buy groceries or make farm payments. Some people lost hope and moved away.

35. HERBERT HOOVER was President at the beginning of the Great Depression. How did he deal with the problems in our economy? Hoover believed government money shouldn’t go directly to the Americans. He thought this would hurt their spirits. It would make them feel helpless, worthless.

36. Pres. Hoover believed… The government should have a balanced budget. This means the government should NOT spend more than it collects.

37. President Hoover… Urged businesses… not to lay off workers.

38. He wanted to expand… government jobs.

39. People didn’t believe Herbert Hoover’s optimism. Times got tougher & tougher!

43. Read the bottom sign.

44. Imagine living in this kind of house! See the wood stove taken from a home to cook & heat.

46. Destructive wind and dust storms that hit the United States in the 1930’s. It lasted for about 10 years. The dust bowl was mainly in Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. The Dust Bowl

47. Unemployed farmers from the Dust Bowl looked for work in California.

49. Mass exodus to California. Opportunities in Russia. Migrant workers become source of cheap labor.

50. A wall of dust approaching a Kansas town. October 4, 1935.

51. 1930