Transcript Document

THE GREAT DEPRESSION
A Pre-Study to
No Promises in the Wind
WHAT WAS THE GREAT
DEPRESSION?
• The Great Depression was a time
between 1929 through the 1930’s when
the entire world suffered from a poor
economy. (This means that people
were having a hard time finding jobs,
making money, and paying for the
things they needed.)
SO WHAT?
LOTS OF PEOPLE DON’T HAVE
MONEY TODAY.
WHAT MADE THE GREAT
DEPRESSION SO DIFFERENT?
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
WAS MUCH BIGGER!
• Millions of people in the United States (and
around the world) had no jobs.
• Countless people became homeless.
• Families were separated as parents and older
children tried to find work.
• The depression lasted for more than a
decade.
HERE ARE THE FACTS.
• In the early years of the depression in the United
States, over 250,000 children were homeless.
• About 90% of these children were malnourished,
meaning they were unhealthy because they didn’t
have enough food / vitamins.
• Nearly 3 million children had to drop out of school
because their families needed them to work OR
because their schools closed down.
• In some cases, children were paid barely more than
50 cents a week. Wages were as low as 2 cents an
hour.
HERE ARE THE FACTS.
• Families were separated as people tried to find jobs.
Many fathers moved to the other side of the country
and were away from their families for years.
• One out of EVERY 4 PEOPLE in the country had no
job.
• The depression lasted for more than a decade.
HOW DID IT HAPPEN?
• Because of the Great Depression,
businesses could not afford to pay their
workers, so they had to fire people.
• Normally when people lose a job, they get
another one. During the Great Depression,
however, there were no other jobs because
almost all businesses were firing people, and NO
businesses were hiring. Thus, people couldn’t
find work, and they couldn’t make money.
• Since people didn’t have money, they
couldn’t afford to buy things. This made
businesses even more broke.
• When the businesses became even
more broke, they had to fire even more
people, so everything started all over
again.
SO WHAT HAPPENED TO
THE COUNTRY?
• People lost their homes. Many lived in shacks like
this.
• Some lived in tents. (Notice that this family is living in
their car, as well.)
• This is a picture of New York. Look at the make-shift
shacks people lived in through the winter. Do you
think these shacks had heat?
• This is a REAL school during the depression. Notice
the students are sitting on logs and that a garbage
can is helping to support the ceiling.
• People without money can’t buy food. Here are some
men at a soup kitchen for a free meal. Remember-these men might have owned homes before this.
Here’s another food line picture.
• This is another
food line. Look
at how many
people have to
rely on free
food to survive.
• Here’s a picture of people looking for a job. Jobs
were rare, and many people would be after the same
position. Most would go away empty-handed.
• Many people left their hometowns to try and
find work. Many traveled across the country.
• Here’s a family that couldn’t afford a car, so they
walked from town to town looking for work.
• Some people hopped on freight trains to get from
town to town--a terribly dangerous way to travel.
• Look at this billboard. Many towns would not allow
travelers to stay because they didn’t even have
enough jobs for their own citizens.
• Here’s a picture of a homeless man resting. Remember-this man might have been living in his own house only
months earlier.
• Here are three homeless children. You should note
that children often tried to find work during the Great
Depression, too. Many traveled across the country
and away from their families.
• Here is another picture of some young children
during the depression. Look at how dirty they are.
AS IF THINGS WEREN’T
BAD ENOUGH, ALONG
CAME THE GREAT DUST
BOWL.
WHAT WAS THE DUST BOWL?
• The Dust Bowl was a group of dust storms in the
central United States and Canada from 1934 to
1939. (A dust storm occurs when huge amounts
of dust and sand rise into the air, blocking out the
sun.)
• The Dust Bowl storms were so big that they
stretched from Oklahoma to Texas, to Arkansas,
to Illinois.
WHY WAS THE DUST BOWL
SUCH A BIG DEAL?
• Since the dust storms of the Dust Bowl were so
huge--and since they lasted so long--they
destroyed many plants and crops. Lots of
farmers lost their farms, causing EVEN MORE
people to be out of work during the Great
Depression.
• Many of these farmers moved west in search of
jobs--just like everyone else--but there weren’t
many jobs to be found.
• Here’s a picture of a dust storm approaching a
small town in Texas. Look at how big it is.
• Here’s another picture--this time in South Dakota. Look at
the size of the storm! Imagine the damage it would cause!
FINALLY--A TURNING POINT
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
• When did things finally start to get better?
• How did America survive the Great
Depression?
THE NEW DEAL
• The New Deal was a bunch of government programs
started in 1933 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
These programs were made to give people jobs and to
help improve the economy.
• Some New Deal programs were as follows: Civilian
Conservation Corps (CCC), the Civil Works
Administration (CWA), the Federal Emergency Relief
Administration (FERA), the National Youth
Administration (NYA), and above all, the Works
Progress Administration (WPA).
• Here are some men who were given jobs by one of
these government programs--the WPA.
• The WPA employed workers in construction projects
across the country. Workers built and fixed highways,
streets, public buildings, airports, utilities, small dams,
sewers, parks, libraries, and recreational fields.
• Many of the structures you see today were built by the
WPA. For example, they created 650,000 miles of
roads, 78,000 bridges, 125,000 buildings, and seven
hundred miles of airport runways.
• In addition to building things, they also created art.
They had 225,000 concerts to audiences totaling 150
million people, and they produced almost 475,000
artworks. They employed artists, musicians,
photographers, and writers on smaller-scale projects,
and they even ran a circus.
This picture shows WPA workers fixing a canal.
This picture shows WPA workers building an airport.
This picture shows
artwork created by a
WPA artist.
• The CCC was
another New
Deal program.
Like the WPA,
this one focused
on hard, physical
labor.
• In this picture,
two men are
moving a boulder
to help create a
park.
• In this picture, two
CCC men are
cutting down a
tree.
• Here, a group of
CCC men are
putting plants and
shrubs along the
roadside to
beautify the
highways.
• In this picture, several CCC men are fighting a
forest fire.
HOW DID THE NEW DEAL
HELP AMERICA GET
BETTER?
There were lots of factors, but
for one thing, the New Deal
gave people jobs again.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see t his pict ure.
Of course, this meant money
for people--money they could
spend on food, clothes,
medicine, and shelter.
Quic kT ime™ and a
T IFF (Uncompres sed) decompres sor
are needed to s ee this pi ct ure.
Since people were spending
more money, businesses became
more successful, and they started
hiring more people.
QuickTime™ and a
TIFF (Uncompressed) decompressor
are needed to see this picture.
DID THE NEW DEAL FIX
EVERYTHING RIGHT AWAY?
No! It took years and years for the country to
get back on its feet again. That’s why the Great
Depression was such a difficult time for the
country and the world.