The Great Depression and New Deal.

By Gary Toon

Thesis

• What effects did the great depression and the new deal have on the people all over the world?

Great Depression

• It was a slump in North America, Europe, and other places.

• It lasted from1929 to 1939.• It was the longest

depression ever experienced by the industrialized western world.

• overproduction• Factories were producing more than people

could afford to buy.• With prices rising faster than salaries, many

Americans cut back on their purchases.

• The housing and automobile manufacturer were in decline.

• Car sales dropped by more than one third.• A nationwide banking crisis also contributed to

the depression.• Struggling farmers were finding it Impossible to

repay their loans.• Many of the small banks that had loaned

farmers money also went out of business.

• City banks also failed too.• After the crash, terrified depositors fled into

banks and demanded for their money.• More than 5,500 banks closed between 1930

and 1933.• Many depositors were left penniless.

• Many workers lost their jobs, which they had even less money to make purchases with.

• With declining sales led to more factories closing and layoffs.

• Many companies were forced into bankruptcy.• Of course, these bankruptcies caused even

more layoffs.

The human cost

• The unemployed– Unemployment 3-25%– Salary and hours were cut back (ex:coal miners

$7per day compared to now $1 per day.• Growing poverty– Jobless people lined up at soup kitchens– People tried selling apples or pencils for food.

The human cost

• Impact on families– fathers (no work)– Children (health problems-lack of food/medical

care)– Schools closed (under age of 13 didn’t attend

school at all.)

President Hoover

• Government help– Reconstruction finance corporation (RFC)-gave

money to fund public-works projects ,banks ,insurance companies ,railroads.

– Hoover encouraged private charities to set up soup kitchens.

– Financial status still got worse.

President Roosevelt

• Background– Assistant secretary and vice

president in 1920– 1932 became president– polio (paralyzed in lower body)

• HOPE– Roosevelt pledged “The New

Deal”– Bank holiday- helped to restore

confidence in the banking system.

The New Deal

• Goal: provide jobs for the unemployed

• Goal: aimed to help industry and tackle rural poverty

• Goal: prevent another depression

Obstacles to the New deal

• Supreme court– Several new deal measures to be unconstitutional

• New deal critics– Went to far in regulating businesses and

restricting individual freedom.– Huey long (democratic senator)– Francis Townsend (pensions)

Women in the depression• Workplace– Little competition from

men– Trained to become school

teachers therefore it was hard to find a job that men had lost.

– Wages lower than the men– Most women eventually

lost their jobs

First active lady• Eleanor Roosevelt (FDR’S wife)– Overcame her shyness to begin speaking and

traveling on his behalf.– Helped transformed the role of the first lady.– Urged FDR to appoint more women to

government positions.

African Americans

• South and north– South- cotton prices– 1932-more than half AF in the south were

unemployed.– AF were usually hired last and fired first.

The Indian new deal

• 1924– Citizenship to native Americans.– John collier- commissioner of Indian affairs

Dust bowl

• Black blizzards– Storms that arose so

suddenly. • Heading west– Ruined farm families left

their dusty homes to find work.

– “okies” called this because they came from Oklahoma.

Art and media

• John Steinbeck wrote “The Grapes of Wrath” describing the miseries of the dust bowl.

• Arts– Depression was the theme for photographers and

painters.• Movies and radio– Movies dealt realistically with social problems.– Grapes of wrath, the public enemy

• Radio– Part of everyday life– Entertainment/popular bands and comedians– Soap operas

Social Security

• Old age insurance-guaranteed retired people a pension.

• Aid to dependent children (ADC)– Granted money to help children whose fathers

were dead, unemployed or not living with the family.

Lasting labor reforms

• New laws– Wagner act- promised workers rights to organize

into unions and prohibit unfair business practices.– Also held up collective bargaining-right of a union

to negotiate wages and benefits for all of its members.

Scorecard on the new deal

• Against the new deal– Too much power to the federal government– Government programs threaten both individual

freedom and free enterprise.• For the new deal– Eased many of the problems– Employed millions of jobless people, ending

banking crisis, reformed stock market, etc– Restored faith in government.

video

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoptH8TqasE

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaI5IRuS2aE&feature=PlayList&p=7C9CAF894BCEE1FB&index=3&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL

Work cited

• Davidson, James and Stoff, Michael. America History Of Our Nation. New Jersey: Pearson education inc, 2007.

• lamb, Annette. “The Great Depression." January 1999.January 1999. http://www.42explore2.com/depresn.htm.

• Bryant, Joyce. “The Great Depression and The New Deal." Yale. April 4th 1998. Yale. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1998/4/98.04.04.x.html

• Schultz, Stanley. “Liberalism at High Noon: The New Deal." University of Wisconsin. 1998. http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture19.html