The Great Depression

Election of 1928

“We in America are nearer to the final triumph over poverty than ever before in the history of any land. The poorhouse is vanishing from among us.”

- Herbert Hoover, 1928

The Great Crash !   May 1928-September 1929,

stocks of major industries doubled

!   beginning in Sept 1929, gradual slide

! Black Thursday (Oct. 24) !   largest sell-off in NYSE history

! Black Tuesday (Oct. 29) !   $40 billion in stock value lost by

Dec.

!   Signaled beginning of Depression – did not cause Depression

! Overspeculation

Causes of the Depression ! Lack of diversification

!   Prosperity depended on a few industries

! Weakness in consumer demand !   Consumer demand was unequally distributed !   Overproduction

! Poor credit structure !   Farmers deep in debt !   Instability of banks

! Decline of exports !   High protective tariffs

! International debt !   Allies owed money to U.S. – depended on reparations and loans to pay

Progress of the Depression

Stock Market Crash

Banking Collapse

(Bank Runs)

Severe Contraction (Deflation)

Severe Unemployment

Unemployment and Relief

!   Belief in personal responsibility – sense of shame

!   Turned to state and local public relief systems !   Unequipped to handle massive unemployment

“Dust Bowl”

!   Steady decline in rainfall combined with heat wave beginning in 1930 !   Turned farmland

into deserts

!   Many left homes in search of work or handouts – “Okies”

African Americans and the Depression

!   Experienced considerably more unemployment, homelessness, malnutrition, disease !   Displaced in service occupations by whites

!   Forced from farmland

!   Continued migration to northern cities

!   Scottsboro Case – Nine “Scottsboro Boys” convicted of rape with no evidence !   Supreme Court overturned convictions

!   New cases publicized by International Labor Defense and NAACP

Other Minorities and the Depression

!   Mexican Americans !   Similar patterns of discrimination

!   Some forcefully removed from the country

!   Asian Americans !   Japanese American Citizens League – challenged

discrimination

Women and the Workplace in the Great Depression

!   Popular disapproval of women’s employment !   Despite this, 20% more women were in the work force

at the end of the Great Depression

!   More likely to lose professional and industrial work

!   Feminist setbacks

Depression Values

!   Retreat from consumerism

!   Persistence of the “Success Ethic” !   Led to self blame for poverty

!   Dale Carnegie: How to Win Friends and Influence People

Artists and Intellectuals and the Great Depression

!   “Discovery” of rural poverty through photography work of Farm Security Administration !   Dorothea Lange

!   Writers wrote exposés on social injustice and poverty !   John Steinbeck: The Grapes of Wrath

Radio

!   Often a community experience

!   “Escapist” programming !   Amos ‘n Andy, Superman, Dick Tracy, The Lone Ranger !   Soap operas

!   Direct access to public events !   Sporting events, politics, the Hindenburg disaster

Movies in the New Era

!   Less expensive entertainment option – movies were becoming more appealing (color and sound)

!   Most films were deliberately escapist – musicals, comedies !   The Marx Brothers

!   Walt Disney

Popular Literature and Journalism

!   Most popular were escapist !   Gone With The Wind

!   Magazines focused on fashions, stunts, scenery, and the arts !   Life Magazine

!   Some challenged values of American popular culture !   John Dos Passos

The Popular Front and the Left

!   Rise of the “Popular Front” Broad coalition of “antifascist” groups

!   American Communist Party most influential !   Orchestrated by Soviet Comintern

!   Spanish Civil War – attracted young Americans !   Fought against the fascists supported by Hitler and

Mussolini

The Popular Front and the Left (cont.)

!   The Socialist Party of America !   Supported Southern Tenant Farmers Union

! Antiradicalist efforts by the national government

!   “Left” became more attractive during the Great Depression

Hoover’s Reaction: The Hoover Program

!   Limited government philosophy !   Urged voluntary cooperation for recovery – collapsed

!   Public works programs

!   Agricultural Marketing Act: government program to maintain farm prices

!   Hawley-Smoot Tariff

Unhappy Presidency !   Many held Hoover personally to

blame !   “Hoovervilles,” “Hoover Flags,”

“Hoover Blankets”

!   Formed Reconstruction Finance Corporation (RFC) !   Provided federal loans to banks,

railroads, other businesses !   Bailout program !   Did not have enough money to

make impact

Popular Protest

!   Farmers’ Holiday Association !   Endorsed farmers’ strike

!   Bonus Army !   Demanded payment of bonus

promised for 1945 !   20,000 marched on

Washington !   Hoover ordered U.S. Army to

assist police in clearing them out

The Election of 1932

!   Democrats nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt !   Demonstrated willingness to use government programs

as governor of New York

!   “I pledge you, I pledge myself to a new deal for the American people”

The “Interregnum”

!   Period between election and inauguration

!   Collapse of American banking system accelerated

!   Hoover tried to get Roosevelt to promise that he would maintain policies of economic orthodoxy !   Roosevelt refused

!   Personal bitterness between the two