Chapter 24

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

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

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 1919 1929 1930 1933 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. Global Depression • Smoot-Hawley Tariff (1930) • Second highest tariff in US history World Trade decline 66% between 1929 and 1943 German Reichsmark

10. 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 Hoover & The Depression

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

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

14. Margaret Bourke-WhiteBread Line during the Louisville flood, Kentucky1937

17. Dorothea LangeDitched, Stalled, and Stranded San Joaquin Valley, California1935

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. 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. Dust Bowl

40. 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. • http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/depression/dustbowl.htm • Life during the Dust Bowl Dust Bowl

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

42. 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 Understanding Images

43. 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."  Steinbeck and the Dust Bowl

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)