The Great Depression

HST 210: The US Experience

Why the Depression Happened
1. The Farm Crisis

2.  Declining Demand

3.  Poor Distribution of Income

4.  Housing Market

5.  Speculation on the Stock Market

The Market Crashes
-On October 24, 1929
-prices fell
-brokers required investors who had bought stock to put up the money
to cover their loans
-investors dumped the stocks
-stock values plunged
-on October 29, sellers dumped more than 16 million shares
The Human Cost
-it hit both rural and urban areas and white collar families
-unemployment jumped from 3 million in 1929 to 12.5 million in 1932
-by 1933 the average family income fell by 40%
-families tried to cope by "making do"
-President Hoover declared “nobody is actually starving.  The hobos
are better fed than they ever have been” - Hoovervilles
-forced couples to delay marriages
-drove birthrates down
-the divorce rate fell
-desertion, however, soared
-the poor survived because they knew how to deal with poverty
-the middle class was the hardest hit
-they would refuse to ask for charity or even food
New Deal
-Roosevelt’s inauguration was on March 4, 1933 when he
declared “The only thing we have to fear is fear itself” 
-urged Americans to use the values of hard work cooperation
and sacrifice that had made the nation great
-New Deal designed to bring about recovery and reform during
the Depression
-Roosevelt spoke in simple terms that appealed to many
Americans
New Deal Programs
Emergency Banking Act 1933- some banks would reopen with gov.
support and weak banks would be permanently closed down
-Roosevelt convinced Americans that it was safe to again deposit
money in banks

The Agricultural Adjustment Act 1933

-it was created to stop agricultural overproduction

Civilian Conservation Corps 1933

-this was to help ease unemployment among young men ages 18-25

Tennessee Valley Authority 1933

-it was designed to build hydroelectric power dams along the
Tennessee River
The Second New Deal 1935-1939
The Works Progress Administration 1935
-the WPA was the main federal relief agency that addressed
the needs of the unemployed
-the agency constructed roads, public buildings, parks, airports,
and bridges

The New Deal Culture 1935

-the WPA also created special projects to make jobs for artists,
actors, and writers and wanted to redefine the relationship
between art and the community

Social Security Act 1935

-this was a welfare system to aid the elderly, the disabled, and
the unemployed
The Legacy of the New Deal
-the New Deal did create some fundamental changes
-people now looked to the government to guarantee economic
stability
-during the 1930s many Americans received direct government
assistance from federal programs like Social Security etc
-the New Deal also laid the foundations of America’s welfare
state
-the New Deal failed in one fundamental way: getting people
back to work
-by 1939, more than 10 million people were still unemployed
and the rate was 19%