The Great Depression

and its impact on the FAMILY

The Depression changed the family in dramatic ways. Many
couples delayed marriage - the divorce rate dropped sharply
(it was too expensive to pay the legal fees and support two
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rule households); and birth rates dropped below the replacement
level for the first time in American history. Families suffered a
dramatic loss of income during Herbert Hoover's term in office,
dropping 35% in those four years to $15M. This put a great deal
of stress on families. Some reacted by pulling together, making
do with what they had, and turning to family and friends for
help. Only after exhausting all alternatives would they
reluctantly look to the government for help. Other families did
not fare as well, and ended up failing apart.

Traditional roles within the family changed during the 1930s.

Men finding themselves out of work now had to rely on their
wives and children in some cases to help make ends meet.
Many did not take this loss of power as the primary decision
maker and breadwinner very well. Many stopped looking for
work, paralyzed by their bleak chances and lack of self-
respect. Some became so frustrated that they just walked out
on their families completely. A 1940 survey revealed that 1.5
million married women had been abandoned by their
husbands.

"America in the Great War," EyeWitness to History,

www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2000).

© History with Mr. E

Specializing in American and World History for late Elementary, Middle, and early High School
 The Great Depression
and its impact on HEALTH
To save money, families neglected medical and dental care. Many
families sought to cope by planting gardens, canning food, buying
old bread, and using cardboard and cotton for shoe soles. Despite a
steep decline in food prices, many families did without milk or meat.
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In New York City, milk consumption declined a million gallons a day.

President Herbert Hoover declared, "Nobody is actually starving.

The hoboes are better fed than they have ever been." But in New
York City in 1931, there were 20 known cases of starvation; in 1934,
there were 110 deaths caused by hunger. There were so many
accounts of people starving in New York that the West African
nation of Cameroon sent $3.77 in relief.

In the 1930s the biggest health concern of America was how to pay
for medical needs. The national income was less than half of what it
had been in 1929, and in several states as many as 40 percent of
the people were on relief. Many Americans could not pay their
medical bills, and visits to physicians and hospitals decreased.
Hospitals were in similar trouble. Beds went empty as patients could
no longer afford a two-week hospitalization, which was the
average in 1933. Bills were unpaid, and charitable contributions to
hospital fund-raising efforts fell.

"Digital History." Digital History. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

"Medicine and Health in the 1930s: Overview." DISCovering U.S. History.

Detroit: Gale, 2003. Student Resources in Context. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

© History with Mr. E

Specializing in American and World History for late Elementary, Middle, and early High School
 The Great Depression
and its impact on MEDIA
In the 1930's, the world took a hit from the Great Depression. In
America, thousands of banks failed, a third of the nation was
unemployed, and society was collapsing. It was the worst
economic ditch America had ever been in since the industrial
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revolution began. The stock market had completely crashed, most of

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America was going hungry without any income, and things didn't
seem to be shaping up anytime soon.

What gave people hope were the fireside chats, a series of

speeches given by President Roosevelt on the radio. Radio was a
form of mass media that was used to help support the American
citizens and get the dream of America back on track. He addressed
many different issues through the radio. Roosevelt discussed
different topics as the world progressed with the economic
downturn. He discussed the bank failure situation, the new deal he
was proposing, recovery programs, unemployment, European war,
the declaration of war with Japan, and the progress of war.

The purpose of these speeches was to inform the people of ongoing

issues, conflicts, and struggles in America. They were used to help
promote measures that Roosevelt wanted passed by legislature so
that he could help revive the state of the nation. It was a campaign
to create awareness, and radio was the perfect medium to get these
messages across. He used the radio as a perfect medium to get in
touch with his audience and inform them of important issues.

"America in the Great War," EyeWitness to History,

www.eyewitnesstohistory.com (2000).

© History with Mr. E

Specializing in American and World History for late Elementary, Middle, and early High School
 The Great Depression
and its impact on HOUSING
Many families in the Great Depression were too poor to afford
housing. Some of them had gotten evicted, where even their
family pictures were sold. They then moved to "Hoovervilles",
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areas of makeshift homes next to cities. The name
"Hooverville" mocked the president, Herbert Hoover and the
biggest Hooverville in Indiana, Curtisville, mocked the Vice
President. Hoovervilles were made up of scraps, including old
tires, cardboard boxes, newspapers, and flattened metal. It
was anything anyone could find, often making it unsafe for
living. Garbage cans were a very important part of homeless
living, because you could cook on the bottom, flatten it to make
part of a house, or even, in some cases, sleep inside of it.

There were several terms for commonly eaten food. One was a
"Hoover Hog", a jackrabbit, a source of food when no other
was available. There was also Mulligan Stew, where
homeless people
gathered together any
food they could find, and
made soup out of it for
everyone. During the
Great Depression,
homeless living was a
way of life.
Credit: Library of Congress

"Hoovervilles Across the United States During the Depression." Hoovervilles

Across the United States During the Depression. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

© History with Mr. E

Specializing in American and World History for late Elementary, Middle, and early High School
 The Great Depression
and its impact on CHILDREN
During this time many children were deprived of an education
because many communities had to close their schools down
during the 1932-1933 term because of a lack of money. Some
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children were lucky enough to be in schools where the
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teachers did not care that they were going to be paid next to
nothing and continued educating. Children also greatly
suffered from malnutrition. For example, in a 1932 study by the
Health Department in New York City, it was found that 20.5
percent of the children were suffering from malnutrition.
Children in rural areas were even worse off. Dietary diseases
were rampant because adequate food such as milk, fruit, fresh
vegetables, and eggs could not be bought with the family’s
low income. The death rate for children suffering from
undernourishment was on the rise because children were
losing their stamina and were unable to fight off disease.

Many teenagers of this period were known for "riding the

rails." Teenagers who felt that they were a burden to their
families or were ashamed of their unemployment and poverty
felt the need to leave their homes to find a life of their own.
They wanted to take the adventure of living on their own and
trying to find a better life. During the height of the Depression,
250,000 teenagers were roaming around America by freight
trains. Some people admired these teenagers for their spirit
while others feared them as potentially dangerous. About
eighty-five percent of these teenagers were in search of
employment.

"Life During the Great Depression." Marquette University, http://

academic.mu.edu/meissnerd/depression.htm. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

© History with Mr. E

Specializing in American and World History for late Elementary, Middle, and early High School
 The Great Depression
and its impact on Farmers
Farmers found themselves in a very desperate situation
during the Great Depression. In the decade prior to this
period, farmers were already losing money because of
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greater industrialization in cities. For them, the Great

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Depression just made worse an already dismal situation.

Many of these farmers were renting their land and their
machinery because of the loss of money in the 20s. At the
beginning of the depression, prices on food that the farmers
produced deflated so much that the farmers were unable to
make a profit off of their land. As a consequence of this, they
refused to sell what they produced. If they lived in the middle
portion of the country, known at this time as the Dust Bowl,
they were also experiencing drought starting around 1932.

They could no longer make money off of what their land

provided. Usually it was barely enough to maintain their
families. As the farmers grew deeper into debt and could no
longer make payments on their land and machinery, the
banks where they borrowed money from foreclosed on their
land. Some of these displaced farmers hoped to move West
to find better land to farm and better opportunities for
themselves and their families.

"Life During the Great Depression." Marquette University, http://

academic.mu.edu/meissnerd/depression.htm. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

© History with Mr. E

Specializing in American and World History for late Elementary, Middle, and early High School
 The Great Depression
and its impact on Cities
When factories and stores shut down, many workers lost their
jobs. In Dubuque, for example, 2,200 workers lost their jobs
between 1927 and 1934 when their firms closed, while only 13 new
businesses opened—employing only 300 workers. That meant a
loss of 1,900 jobs. Dubuque railroads employed 600 workers in
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1931; three years later, only 25 jobs remained.

Before the Great Depression, people refused to go on government

welfare except as a last resort. The newspapers published the
names of all those who received welfare payments, and people
thought of welfare as a disgrace. However, in the face of starving
families at home, some men signed up for welfare payments. For
most it was a very painful experience.

Town families could not produce their own food. Many city dwellers
often went hungry. Sometimes there were soup kitchens in larger
cities that provided free meals to the poor. Winters were an
especially hard time since many families had no money to buy coal
to heat their houses.

The government created programs to put Americans to work. The

Works Progress Administration (WPA) hired many men to work on
parks, roads, bridges, swimming pools, public buildings and other
projects. Teenage boys were hired by the Civilian Conservation
Corps (CCC). They lived in barracks, were given clothing, and
provided with free meals. The small salary that they earned was
sent back to help their families. The CCC boys planted trees, helped
create parks, and did other projects to beautify and preserve
natural areas.
Morain, Tom. "The Great Depression Hits Farms and
Cities in the 1930s.” Iowa Pathways. Web. 23 Apr. 2016.

© History with Mr. E

Specializing in American and World History for late Elementary, Middle, and early High School
 The Great Depression
and its impact on Government
In 1931, the American public ousted Herbert Hoover in favor of
Franklin Roosevelt. The new president brought an air of
confidence and optimism that quickly rallied the people to the
banner of his program that would save the country from the Great
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rule Depression, known as the New Deal. "The only thing we have to
fear is fear itself," the president declared in his inaugural address
to the nation. He was determined to make effective changes
during his presidency. "Roosevelt moved swiftly to deal with the
financial illness that paralyzed the nation. On his very first night in
office, he directed Secretary of the Treasury William Woodin to
draft an emergency banking bill."

The New Deal introduced types of social and economic reform

that had been familiar to many Europeans for more than a
generation. Moreover, the New Deal represented the ending of
the age of “laissez-faire” (hands-off) capitalism. By implementing
a variety of new government programs to help regulate the
economy, Roosevelt was expanding the power of the
government to keep Americans safe and protected.

Many government programs, however, have been deemed

successful by historians. The Civilian Conservation Corps was
created in 1933 to combat unemployment by hiring citizens to build
public projects, such as trails or parks. The Federal Housing
Administration (FHA) began to regulate mortgages to ensure
loans were given to people who could adequately pay them
back. The social security program was established to provide
elderly Americans with a basic level of income during retirement.

Leuchtenburg, William E. Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New

Deal. Harper and Row. New York, 1963.

© History with Mr. E

Specializing in American and World History for late Elementary, Middle, and early High School