1. The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929-1939
Chapter 24

2. The Great Depression “Mellon pulled the whistle, Hoover rang the bell,
Wall Street gave the signal,
And the country went to hell.”
The Great Depression
AP US History

3. The Nation’s Sick Economy A New Deal Fights the Depression
Main Idea – As the prosperity of the 1920s ended, severe economic problems gripped the nation and led to the Great Depression. After becoming president, Franklin Delano Roosevelt used government programs as part of his New Deal to combat the Depression.

4. The Business Cycle of the 20’s
PROSPERITY
HOOVER
FDR
RECESSION
DEPRESSION

6. The Wall Street Crash 1929 Sept. 24 Sept. 29 Oct. 24 Oct. 29 Stocks 
400% in value
Black Thursday
“Margin Calls”
Black Tuesday
“Sell at Any Price”

7. Buying on
Margin

8. The Recession Gets Worse
 DEMAND
 (INVENTORIES)
ECONOMIC
PROBLEMS
MANUFACTURING
CUT-BACKS
 INCOME
WORKERS
LAID OFF

9. World Trade decline 66% between 1929 and 1943
Global Depression
Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1930)
Second highest tariff in US history
1929
1932
Imports
$1,334 million
$390 million
Exports
$2,341 million
$784 million
World Trade decline 66% between 1929 and 1943
German Reichsmark

10. Hoover & The Depression
Hoover’s Philosophy
“Rugged Individualism”
Private Charities
YMCA, Salvation Army
No Direct Aid to the Unemployed
Some Public Works
Hoover Dam
Reconstruction Finance Corporation
Loans to Banks
TRICKLE DOWN ECONOMICS

11. Reaction to Hoover Poverty & Discontent
Communist Threat (Scottsboro Boys)
Bonus Army (1932)

12. Hard Times City Life Farms Family Life Culture
Shantytowns “Hoovervilles”
Farms
Dust Bowl & “Okies”
Family Life
Women as Breadwinners
Culture
Hollywood
The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck)

14. Margaret Bourke-White Bread Line during the Louisville flood, Kentucky 1937

17. Dorothea Lange Ditched, Stalled, and Stranded
San Joaquin Valley, California 1935

19. “…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 did not ask her name or her history. She told me her age, that she was thirty-two. 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…”

20. Grant Woods
American Gothic

21. Jacob Lawrence
Tombstones

22. Edward Hopper
Nighthawks

23. Diego Garcia

24. Charles Sheeler
Classic Landscape

25. Economic Troubles on the Horizon
Background: The prosperity of the 1920s was largely based on the use of credit – def. – consumers agreed to buy now and pay later for purchases
Installment buying
Buying on margin
Over speculation

26. Installment buying
def. - form of credit with monthly payments with interest

27. Buying on margin
def. – buying too many stocks hoping to sell at a higher price in a short period of time, regardless of risk involved

28. Over Speculation
def.- paying only a small percentage of a stock’s price as a down payment and borrowing the rest to make a stock purchase

29. Causes of the Great Depression
Black Tuesday
Hawley-Smoot Act

30. Black Tuesday
October 29, 1929– the stock market crashed with 16.4 million shares of stock sold in one day, causing prices to collapse
Prices of stocks fell  speculators left with huge debts that couldn’t be repaid to banks banks failed people lost their savings

31. Banks Failing
The Federal Reserve failed to prevent widespread collapse of the nation’s banking system as banks continued to fail through the early 1930s

32. Hawley-Smoot Act
Hawley-Smoot Act (1930) - High protective tariff resulted in retaliatory tariffs in other countries, which strangled international trade

33. Financial Collapse
Great Depression
“Hoovervilles”
Farm foreclosures

34. Unemployment Graph
When was unemployment the highest?
Answer: 1933

35. Great Depression
Great Depression– def. – period from 1929 to 1940 in which the economy plummeted and unemployment skyrocketed, causing widespread hardship
Business failures – 90,000 businesses went bankrupt
Collapse of the financial system - over 11,000 bank closings
Unemployment – 25% of American workers were unemployed by 1932

36. “Hoovervilles”
“Hoovervilles”– def. - shacks and shantytowns of homeless people, named for President Hoover
President Hoover thought that private companies and volunteers should take care of the economy
Did not act in the beginning to try to counter act the depression
President Hoover

37. Farm Foreclosures
Farm Foreclosures– farmers lost their homes and lands and were forced to migrate across the country looking for work
Dust Bowl
“Okies”

38. Dust Bowl
Parts of Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado that were hardest hit by draught and dust storms

39. Dust Bowl
Lasted 8 years
Caused by poor agricultural practices and years of sustained drought
The winds of the Great Plains stirred up the dust from the fields and blew it across the plains
In 1932, 14 dust storms were recorded on the Plains.
In 1933, there were 38 storms.
By 1934, it was estimated that 100 million acres of farmland had lost all or most of the topsoil to the winds.

40. Dust Bowl
The Dust Bowl got its name after Black Sunday, April 14, 1935.
The cloud that appeared on the horizon that Sunday was the worst. Winds were clocked at 60 mph. Then it hit.
The simplest acts of life — breathing, eating a meal, taking a walk — were no longer simple.
Children wore dust masks to and from school, women hung wet sheets over windows in a futile attempt to stop the dirt, farmers watched helplessly as their crops blew away.
Life during the Dust Bowl

41. “Okies” Okies: those who moved west to California from Oklahoma
These migrant workers/families lived in tents or out of their automobiles

42. Understanding Images Migrant Mother Photo Video Clip
What feelings does this image give you?
What do you think to woman is feeling? How about the kids?
Describe the way they are dressed?
Migrant Stories
Migrant Mother Photo Video Clip

43. Steinbeck and the Dust Bowl
As John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath:
"And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land." 

44. Americans Get a New Deal
Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR) won the presidential election of 1932
Inaugural address – rallied a frightened nation
“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”
Fireside Chats – FDR’s radio addresses aimed at restoring American confidence

45. New Deal
Relief
Recovery
Reform

46. Relief
Relief: measures that provided direct payment to people for immediate help
CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)
TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority)
WPA (Works Progress Administration)

47. CCC
Civilian Conservation Corps – provided jobs for young single males on conservation projects

48. TVA
Tennessee Valley Authority – provided jobs building dams to bring running water and electricity to poor regions in the South

49. WPA
Works Progress Administration – created as many jobs as quickly as possible in construction of airports, highways, and public buildings as well as professions such as art, music, and theater

50. Recovery
Recovery: programs designed to bring the nation out of the Depression over time
AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act)
NRA (National Recovery Administration)

51. AAA and NRA
AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act) – aided farmers by regulating crop production so prices would rise
NRA (National Recovery Administration) – reformed banking practices and established fair codes of competition for businesses

52. Reform FDIC (Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation) Wagner Act
SSA (Social Security Act)

53. FDIC
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation – protected bank deposits up to $5,000
What does it protect up to today?

54. Wagner Act
Wagner Act– defined unfair labor practices and established the National Labor Relations Board to settle disputes between employers and employees

55. SSA
Social Security Act – provided a pension for retired workers and their spouses and helped people with disabilities

56. Interpreting Cartoons
Who are they main figures in the cartoon?
What are they pouring down the pump?
What is occurring as it is being pumped into the economy?

57. Significance of the New Deal
The New Deal changed the role of government to a more active participant in solving problems
Public believed in the responsibility of the federal government to:
deliver public services
intervene in the economy
act in ways to promote the general welfare