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Great Depression

Great Depression. 1930-1939. Questions to think about. Was the Great Depression preventable? Was the United States government culpable in the even of the Great Depression? Did the Great Depression have a lasting impact on the US? Does Keynesian economics work? Did it in this situation?

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Great Depression

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  1. Great Depression 1930-1939

  2. Questions to think about • Was the Great Depression preventable? • Was the United States government culpable in the even of the Great Depression? • Did the Great Depression have a lasting impact on the US? • Does Keynesian economics work? Did it in this situation? • Do we see any parallels between life in the Depression and our lives now?

  3. Causes of the Great Depression • Life in the 1920s • Buying on credit • Speculative investments • Overproduction of goods • Drop in farm prices • Laissez faire economics (Hoover) • False prosperity, inequality of wealth • Crop prices dropped as much as 60% • Stock market crash on October 29, 1929

  4. US Production

  5. Life in America During the Depression • Unemployment rate soared (13 million people) • Suicide rate almost tripled in the 30s. • Thousands lost their homes and businesses • Hoovervilleswere built through out the United States. Hoover had promised “a chicken in every pot” and instead, many were starving. People were furious. • Spread of illnesses such as influenza, polio and tuberculosis • Immigration virtually halted (over 200,000 in 1929, only 23,000 in 1933) • Bonus Army- WWI veterans who marched on Washington demanding pay for their service. The government had stopped paying benefits because they had no money. • Republican presidents (mostly Hoover) were blamed for the Depression and the US elected Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt. This showed a common belief through out the country that the role of the government should change. FDR’s platform for the Presidency was focused on blaming Hoover as opposed to letting America know his plans for the presidency.

  6. Hoovervilles

  7. Soup Kitchens

  8. Dust Bowl (Dirty Thirties) • Period of severe dust storms due to decades of severe crop rotation, mostly centered in Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle • When a farm was about to be foreclosed upon, neighboring farmers would often agree to keep auction bids low, purchase the farm and return it to the original owner. These were called penny auctions. • Made it impossible to grow crops for almost an entire decade • Thousands starved or lost their farms. • Many were forced to become migrant workers, known as Okies. • Many moved to California in order to escape the Dust Bowl.

  9. Famous people and random events of the 30s • Jesse Owens- American athlete, famous for his performance at the 1936 Olympics • Will Rogers- American entertainer, cowboy • Richard E. Byrd- American explorer who explored the Arctic and Antarctic in the early 30s • Mildred “Babe” Didrikson Zaharias- early female American athlete, won medals in basketball, track and golf • People focused on entertainment as an escape from their difficult lives. • Construction of the Empire State building finished in 1931 • Gone With The Wind starring Clark Gable and Vivenne Leigh was produced • Penicillin was discovered in 1931 • Wizard of Oz debuted in 1939 • Shirley Temple became famous • Star Spangled Banner became our national anthem

  10. FDR • Elected in 1932, would serve four terms until his death • Stricken with polio as an adult and was confined to a wheel chair but refused to be photographed in his wheelchair…there are only two known photos • Married to Eleanor Roosevelt, one of the first truly active first ladies • Created the New Deal, his plan the create jobs during the Depression. He did this by creating hundreds of government jobs such as construction projects (CCC, PWA, TVA) • Repealed Prohibition with the 21st Amendment • Created the Social Security Administration which still exists today • Wrote the National Labor Relations Act which permanently allowed and encouraged the creation of unions and strikes • Listened to John Maynard Keynes (believed that the government should actively interfere in the economy to keep it stable) • Fireside Chats- 30 evening radio addresses given by Roosevelt between 33-44

  11. Assignment • Create a character. Perhaps you are a businessman in NYC who has lost his trading company or perhaps you are the wife of a Dust Bowl farmer. Write one to two sentences telling me about who you are (family, job, age, etc) • Write a letter to a family member (at least 10 sentences) in which you describe how your life has changed since the Great Depression. • Be sure to include details that clearly illustrate that you understand the impact of the Great Depression on the average American

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