The Roaring ’20s and the

Great Depression

1920-1940

AMERICA BECOMES MODERN

First census to indicate Majority of America lived in urban areas-split between urban and rural.

Creation of “generation gap” and “juvenile delinquency”-split between old and young.

Major shift in ethnic trends brought on by immigration laws.

Movement of African-Americans to urban North.

CULTURE WARS

Nativism– Ku Klux Klan

Fundamentalism– Scopes Trial

Youth Movement– Flappers

Organized Crime– Prohibition

Race and Ethnicity– Immigration Act of 1921 and

1924

– Harlem Renaissance

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1398.html

http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/roaring_twenties.htm

CONSUMERISM

High Employment

Commercial Credit

Rise of Madison Avenue

– The “hard sell”

– Mass marketing

Low Savings Rates

New Consumer Luxury

Items

http://www.digitalhistory.u

h.edu/database/article_di

splay.cfm?HHID=454

1920s ECONOMIC POLICY

Sec. of Treasury Andrew Mellon– Believed in “trickle-down”

economics

– Cut or eliminated taxes for rich

Heavy investment in stocks

Protective tariffs

http://www.few.eur.nl/_few/people//smant/m-economics/crash1929.htm

THE GREAT DEPRESSION

Contributing Factors

– Maldistribution of Income

– Protective tariffs

– Overinvestment in Stocks

– Sick industries

– High debt/low savings

– Money Supply

Started in October 1929

Reached worst point in 1933 with 24.9% unemployment

http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Timeline.htm

Classic Photo

Taken from http://home.millsaps.edu/mcelvrs/Depression_2001_1.html

Photograph by Dorothea Lang

Why can’t you give my dad a job?

Taken from Minnesota Historical Society http://shop.mnhs.org/pages.cfm?id=57

Living on the streets

Take from Think Quest Economic History Site

http://library.thinkquest.org/C005121/data/germany.htm

Roosevelt Library Photo

Take from Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/great-depression.htm

Also shown on National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior http://www.nps.gov/

Jobless Men unable to care for

their families

Taken from Pensito Review http://www.pensitoreview.com/2005/07/page/2/

USA Work Program

Taken from American Life Histories, manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940. Manuscript Division Library of Congress

http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html

Homeless Beggar

Taken from Bergen County Technical Schools, Teaching American History Grant, Funded by U.S. Department of Education

http://www.bergen.org/ourstory/resources/great_depression/index.htm

How Did Drought, and Dust Storms Compound

Depression Era Problems for Farmers?

Where was the Dust Bowl?

What caused the Dust Bowl disaster?

Severe drought (no rain)

Overgrazing by cattle

Over plowing by farmers

High winds

– All these conditions

destroyed the grasses that

held the soil in place

– These storms were called

“Black Blizzards”

– Parts of the Great Plains

became known as the Dust

Bowl

Scenes from the Dust BowlDust Storm over Oklahoma

Scenes from the Dust BowlDust Storm over Texas

Scenes from the Dust BowlDust Storm over Kansas

Who did the drought hit the hardest?

Migrant workers

– Poor farmers from Oklahoma

and Arkansas headed west

to escape the Dust Bowl

– Many moved to the west

coast to find jobs on farms

– They were not welcomed by

locals

– Locals feared that the

migrants would take local

jobs

– Migrant workers lived in poor

conditions (tents, no water or

electricity)

Conclusion: How did drought, and dust storms

compound depression era problems for farmers?

Farmers were already struggling through the economic depression (due to overproduction of crops)

Lack of rain and the overuse of land made farmers problems worse

Conditions forced farmers of the Great Plains to migrate west where they were unwelcome and faced an even harder life

Many were left displaced/homeless as farm land became useless