1. The Great Depression and the 1930s

2. Table of Contents The Stock Market Crash
Causes of the Great Depression
Impact on Americans
Herbert Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The New Deal
FDR and the American People
The Dust Bowl
World War II begins

3. The Stock Market Crash
1929
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4. What event marked the beginning of the Great Depression?
The stock market crashed, October 29, 1929
This day became known as “Black Tuesday”
This pictures shows the panic on Wall Street during the Stock Market crash of 1929
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5. What event marked the beginning of the Great Depression?
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6. What event marked the beginning of the Great Depression?
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7. What event marked the beginning of the Great Depression?
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8. What event marked the beginning of the Great Depression?
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9. What event marked the beginning of the Great Depression?
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10. What event marked the beginning of the Great Depression?
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11. Causes of the Great Depression
Over speculation of Stocks
Federal Reserve
High Tariffs
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12. What were the causes of the Great Depression
What were the causes of the Great Depression? Over speculation of stocks
People wanted to get rich in the 1920s by investing in stocks
People often borrowed money from banks to buy stocks
When the stock prices dropped, people could not afford to pay back the banks!
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13. What were the causes of the Great Depression? The Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve failed to prevent the collapse of the banking system
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14. What were the causes of the Great Depression? The Federal Reserve
Confused?
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15. What were the causes of the Great Depression? The Federal Reserve
What does all this mean?
1. The Federal Reserve supplies banks with their money
2. The banks loaned all of their money to people who were buying stocks
3. Stock prices dropped
4. People lost money
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16. What were the causes of the Great Depression? The Federal Reserve
What does all this mean?
5. People could not afford to pay back the bank
6. The banks had no money!
7. When people went to get money out of the banks that they were saving, there was no money left!

17. What were the causes of the Great Depression? High Tariffs
High Tariffs of the 1920s strangled (stopped) international trade
People could not get goods from another country at a cheaper price to save money
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18. Employment Farmers Community Help
Impact on Americans
Employment
Farmers
Community Help
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19. Impact on Americans: Banks and Businesses
How were the lives of Americans affected by the Great Depression?
1. Banks and Businesses Failed
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20. Impact on Americans: Banks and Businesses
How were the lives of Americans affected by the Great Depression?
¼ of all Americans did not have a job. They tried to find work by riding the rails or migrant work.
People with jobs
People without jobs
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21. Migrant workers of the Great Depression
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22. Migrant workers of the Great Depression
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23. Migrant workers of the Great Depression
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24. Migrant workers of the Great Depression
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25. Migrant workers of the Great Depression
Why do you think the children are in these fields?
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26. Migrant workers of the Great Depression
How were times different in the 1930s than they were in the 1920s?
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27. Migrant workers of the Great Depression
Where do you think these people are heading? Why do you think they do not have any tires on the car (left picture)?
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28. Migrant workers of the Great Depression
What part of the country do you think she’s in when this picture was taken?
What do you think she is thinking about?
How old do you think the lady in the picture is?
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29. Dorthea Lange, Migrant Mother photograph
In 1960, Lange gave this account of the experience:
I saw and approached the hungry and desperate mother, as if drawn by a magnet. I do not remember how I explained my presence or my camera to her, but I do remember she asked me no questions. I made five exposures, working closer and closer from the same direction. I did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two.
Works Progress Administration
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30. Dorthea Lange, Migrant Mother photograph
She said that they had been living on frozen vegetables from the surrounding fields, and birds that the children killed. She had just sold the tires from her car to buy food. There she sat in that lean- to tent with her children huddled around her, and seemed to know that my pictures might help her, and so she helped me. There was a sort of equality about it. (From: Popular Photography, Feb. 1960).
Works Progress Administration
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31. Impact on Americans: Hungry and Homeless
How were the lives of Americans affected by the Great Depression?
3. Many Americans were hungry and homeless
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32. Hungry and Homeless during Depression
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33. Hungry and Homeless during Depression
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34. Hungry and Homeless during Depression
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35. Hungry and Homeless during Depression
“One vivid, gruesome moment of those dark days we shall never forget,” recalls one citizen from the Great Depression in “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, 1941
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36. Hungry and Homeless during Depression
“In an Appalachian Mountains school, a child who looked sick was told by her teacher to go home and get something to eat. ‘I can’t,’ the girl replied. ‘It’s my sister’s day to eat.’”
–Oates and Errico, Portrait of America
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37. Hungry and Homeless during Depression
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38. Impact on Americans: Farmers
How were the lives of Americans affected by the Great Depression?
4. Farmer’s incomes fell to low levels
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39. Farmers of the Great Depression
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40. Farmers of the Great Depression
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41. Impact on Americans: Community Help
How did the community try to help the homeless and the hungry?
a. Soup Kitchens, breadlines
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42. Impact on Americans: Community Help
How did the community try to help the homeless and the hungry?
a. Soup Kitchens, breadlines
b. Cut back on services (police; fire dept.; trash)
c. Closed schools or cut teachers salaries
d. Penny Auctions
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43. Impact on Americans: Penny Auctions
What is a penny auction?
A lot of times during the Great Depression, farmers could not afford to pay what they owed on their farm and would lose their farms to the bank.
The bank would then sell these ‘foreclosed’ properties at auctions
Farmers would go to the auctions and try to purchase the land for very low costs
Farmers got very upset when non-farmers came to the auctions and tried to put in high bids for the property
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44. President at the beginning of the Great Depression 1929-1933
Herbert Hoover
President at the beginning of the Great Depression
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45. Herbert Hoover President at the beginning of the Great Depression
Inaugural address, March (7 months before the Great Depression)
“We in America today are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. The poorhouse is vanishing from among us.
I have no fears for the future of our country. It is bright with hope.”
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46. Herbert Hoover
Herbert Hoover was president at the beginning of the Great Depression.
How did he deal with the problems in our economy?
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47. Herbert Hoover How did he deal with the problems in our economy?
Many people blamed Hoover for the Depression
They felt like he did not help the American people
Hoover was like a ‘Cheerleader,’ telling everyone it would be OK.
Hoover believed that if the government helped out too much, people would stop trying to help themselves
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48. Herbert Hoover
“It is solely a question of the best method by which hunger and cold shall be prevented…I am willing to pledge myself that if the time should ever come that the voluntary agencies of the country, together with the local and state governments, are unable to find resources with which to prevent hunger and suffering in my country, I will ask the aid of every resource of the Federal Government…I have faith in the American people that such a day will not come.”
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49. The Great Depression Begins

50. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
President,
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51. Franklin D. Roosevelt President during most of the Great Depression
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
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52. Franklin D. Roosevelt What is going on in this political cartoon?
Who is walking away?
What is F.D.R. carrying?
What do you think is symbolized in this cartoon?
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53. The New Deal Social Security Act Federal Works Programs
Environmental Improvement Programs
Farm Assistance Programs
Increased Rights for Labor
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54. Social Security Act Established a tax paid by bosses and employees
This tax is used to pay pensions (a retirement income) to older Americans (age 65 and older)
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55. Social Security Act
This also helps with survivors insurance (if your parent passes away and you need support)
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56. Social Security Act
What is the main group of Americans that benefited from the Social Security Act?
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57. Social Security Act
What is the main group of Americans that benefited from the Social Security Act?
The elderly, like the guy on the left.
Which president created the Social Security Act?
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58. Federal Works Programs (WPA, PWA)
Works Progress Administration
Built roads, bridges, parks, and public buildings like schools, and libraries.
Also, paid artists (such as Dorthea Lange) to record life during this time period.
Public Works Administration
Also built roads and highways
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59. Federal Works Programs (WPA, PWA)
Works Progress Administration
This D.C. bridge was built by workers in the Works Progress Administration.
Why was confidence needed during this period?
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60. Federal Works Programs (WPA, PWA)
Works Progress Administration
What types of work did the people in the WPA do?
Who benefited from the WPA?
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61. Federal Works Programs (WPA, PWA)
Public Works Administration, bridge
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62. Federal Works Programs (CCC, TVA)
Civilian Conservation Corps
Built wildlife preserves, planted trees, built lookout towers for fires, took care of forest roads and trails
What types of people worked in the CCC?
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63. Federal Works Programs (CCC, TVA)
Civilian Conservation Corps
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64. Environmental Improvement Programs (CCC, TVA)
Tennessee Valley Authority
Built dams in this area to control farming. Brought electricity to farmers in this region.
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65. Environmental Improvement Programs (CCC, TVA)
Tennessee Valley Authority
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66. Farm Assistance Programs (Agricultural Adjustment Act)
Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA)
Helped farmers to get higher prices for their crops
Paid farmers to grow less crops
You get paid more money for less work! How would this happen???
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67. Increased Rights for Labor
Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA):
Established a minimum wage.
This made employers pay at least 25 cents/hour
Set a work week of 44 hours
It made it against the law for those under 16 to work
National Industry Recovery Act (NRA):
Helped labor unions by promising workers the right to work with unions
Unions would help to get better pay and work conditions
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68. Fair Labor Standards Act, Cartoon
What is going on in this cartoon?
Who is the thief?
Why is that person the thief?
What did the Fair Labor Standards Act do to stop this?
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69. National Industry Recovery Act:
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70. F.D.R. and the American People
Fireside Chats
Bank Holidays
FDIC
Eleanor Roosevelt
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71. Fireside Chats
Weekly radio programs in which FDR spoke directly to the people about what he was trying to do to improve conditions
This uplifted the spirits of the American people
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72. Fireside Chats
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73. Fireside Chats
What does the person in the chair represent? Why is his face bandaged?
Who is he listening to?
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74. Bank Holiday
4 days that the banks would be closed so the government could check bank records
They could see which banks were the strongest and could survive
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75. A Dusty Time in American History
The Dust Bowl
A Dusty Time in American History
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76. The Dust Bowl
The Great Plains regions had been over- farmed during World War I.
This led to erosion.
Then, great winds moved into the region and lasted. This picked up the soil. Tons soil were blown into the Gulf of Mexico.
Farming was impossible, and living in this area was almost impossible as well.
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77. The Dust Bowl This picture shows an example of erosion in the land.
What do you think the cow things of this weather?
What artist would have most likely painted a picture of this scene?
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78. The Dust Bowl Question: What regions were affected by the Dust Bowl?
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79. The Dust Bowl
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80. The Dust Bowl
What are some of the dangers of living in an area covered in dust like this?
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81. The Dust Bowl
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82. The Dust Bowl
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83. World War II begins
1939
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