The Great Depression

By Tayler Nalesnik

It is 1929 and the stock market has just crashed to about 20% of its value. Millions of stockholders have just lost hundreds of dollars invested into the stock market. Banks are failing and closing everyday. Not to mention the drought that has seized the entire south. The United States has just entered The Great Depression.

What is the Great Depression?

The Great Depression was a worldwide economic crisis that in the United States was marked by widespread unemployment, near halts in industrial production and construction, and an 89 percent decline in stock prices. It was preceded by the so-called New Era, a time of low unemployment when general prosperity masked vast disparities in income.

What Caused the Great Depression?

Stock Market Crash of 1929

Bank Failures

Less Purchasing Across The Board

Drought Conditions

• Many could not pay debts and had to sell farms due the Dust Bowl.

• Less goods were being produced and bought.

• Throughout the 1930s over 9,000 banks failed.

• Stockholders lost over $40 million dollars

Stock Market Crash

Bank Failures

Drought ConditionsLess

Purchasing Across The

Board

DU

ST B

OW

L Above is a picture during the dust bowl in the 1930s. Some people recall seeing cars and trucks being blown down streets from the raging dust storms.

Effects on the citizens…

As the Great Depression entered the 1930s many Americans felt the effects of it.

Financially

Socially

Emotionally

Financially

Socially

Emotionally

• Decline in consumer demand

• Many families could not pay their bills

• Crime rate increased• Mass migrations

• unemployed Americans suffered from feelings of inadequacy and idleness. 

• Higher divorce and suicide rate

How were families effected?

Families suffered dramatic loss of income.

Couples delayed marriage because the legal fees were too much to pay.

Birth rates dropped. Men found themselves out of work and

relying on their wives and children to make ends meet.

ON

TH

E R

OA

D A family on the move who lost their farm due to the depression are in search of something better,

What about the homeless?

Many wealthy people did not get effected by the Depression.

The homeless rate had become the highest in American history during the Great Depression.

Soup lines sprouted up in every city and town.

HO

MELE

SS

WA

IT FO

R B

REA

KFA

ST Over one hundred unemployed citizens wait for breakfast in the middle of

February in Chicago, 1931.

Migrant Workers Feel the Effects Too…

Many workers lived in unsanitary conditions.

They suffered through discrimination.

Many went to California in hopes of getting a job at a plantation.

Music from the Great Depression Era

"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," lyrics by Yip Harburg, music by Jay Gorney (1931)

"We're in the Money," lyrics by Al Dubin, music by Harry Warren (from the film Gold Diggers, 1933)

"Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries," lyrics by Lew Brown, music by Ray Henderson (1931)

Literature/Movies From The Era

David Booth, The Dust Bowl

Gold Diggers of 1933

Life during the Great Depression

“The Depression had taken a death grip on theeconomy when I left high school in a pique offrustration with teachers, schools, and financialscrimping. If I thought things were bad when I left, Isoon learned just how much worse they couldbecome. Some of the ever-present problems werefood, rain, cold nights, lack of shelter, and worn outshoes. After my return to Melrose, I found a series ofodd jobs that paid from 10 cents to 25 cents an hour.When the country decided to get ready for war in1940, I was hired as a heavy rigger at G.E. in Lynn

andfor me the depression was over.”

By Bill Jodrey

HA

RD

TIM

ES This photograph above is one of the most well-known pictures of the decade. It

is of a struggling mother and her children.

It Comes To An End…

The Great Depression led to the election of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who created the programs known as the New Deal to overcome the effects of the Great Depression. These programs expanded government intervention into new areas of social and economic concerns and created social-assistance measures on the national level. The Great Depression fundamentally changed the relationship between the government and the people, who came to expect and accept a larger federal role in their lives and the economy.

Works Cited"About the Great Depression." Modern American Poetry. Department of English, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1999. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://www.english.illinois.edu/maps/depression/about.htm>.

"Cultural & Social Effects of the Depression." U.S History. 2008. Web. <http://www.ushistory.org/us/48e.asp>.

"The Great Depression." Eye Witness to History. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/snprelief1.htm>.

"Great Depression Movie Night." Arizona State Library, Archives and Public Records, a Division of the Secretary of State. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://www.lib.az.us/extension/documents/gd/GreatDepressionMovieNight.pdf>.

Jodrey, Bill. "Personal Responses from the Depression Era." The Great Depression. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <melrosemirror.media.mit.edu/servlet/pluto?state=3030347061676530303757656250616765303032696430303432313238http>.

Kelley, Martin. "Five Cause of the Great Depression." About.com. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://americanhistory.about.com/od/greatdepression/tp/greatdepression.htm>.

Lavender, Catherine. "Song of the Great Depression." Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/cherries.html>.

"Migrants." History Matters: The U.S. Survey Course on the Web. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6692>.

Taylor, Nick. "New York Times." The Great Depression. New York Times, 2012. Web. 25 Apr. 2012. <http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/g/great_depression_1930s/index.html>.