Transcript The Great Depression Mr. Giesler American History Do Now: What is an economic depression? What are typical characteristics of a depression or recession? Background Info  The.

The Great Depression
Mr. Giesler
American History
Do Now: What is an economic depression?
What are typical characteristics of a depression or
recession?
Background Info
 The Election of 1928
 Herbert Hoover; President; Republican
 Mining Engineer; accumulated a fortune
 “He had never known failure” – John Maynard Keynes regarding
Hoover
 Exemplified the “new era” of American capitalism
 Author American Individualism – condemned government regulation as
an interference with the economic opportunities of ordinary Americans
Warning Signs
 Southern California and Florida
 real-estate speculation
 Banks failing
Land remained underdeveloped
Mortgages foreclosed
High unequal distribution of income reduced purchasing power
 Sales of consumer goods such as new autos stagnated after 1926
 European demand for American goods declined
 A fall in the bloated stock market was inevitable
Black Thursday
 Oct. 24, 1929 – The Stock Market Crash
 Panic struck
 Massive amounts of people attempt to sell their stock, but nobody was
buying
The Initial Impact
“a passing incident in our national lives” – Hoover
 Hoover attempted to assure Americans that the incident would be over
in 60 days
 U.S. Steel – stock fell from $262 to $22; GM from $73 to $8
 By 1932, Gross National Product had fallen by 1/3
 11M or 25% of the labor force could not find work
 U.S. – 1929, 225K f/t workers to none at the end of 1932
 Every industrial economy suffered
The Aftermath
 Destroyed investment companies and wiped out thousands of investors
 Reduced business and consumer confidence
 26,000 business failed
 Germany Defaults
 Massive layoffs
 Banks failed as depositors withdrew money
 Millions of families lost their life savings
The Transformation
of American Society
 Hundreds of thousands
of people took to the
road in search of work
 People lined the
streets in bread lines
Bread Line
seeking food
TTYN: Describe what the picture depicts
Hoovervilles
TTYN: Describe what the picture depicts
The Aftermath
 Children go barefoot
 American suicide rate rose to the highest level in the nation’s history
 birthrate fell to the lowest
TTYN – If you were Herbert Hoover, how would you respond ?
How would help the citizens of the United States? How should you
help the business that were failing?
Hoover’s Response
 Hoover believed that economic downturns were a normal part of
capitalism
 Weeded out unproductive firms
 Encouraged moral virtue among the less fortunate
 Opposed federal aid to the unemployed
 Individual “belt-tightening” as the road to recovery
Hoover’s Response
 Associational Action – voluntary steps by business to maintain
investment and employment
 Charity organizations should assist need neighbors
 Raised taxes on imported goods, which reduced international trade
 1932 tax increase
 attempt to balance the federal budget
 reduced Americans’ purchasing power even further
Hoover’s Response
 1932
 Voluntary action had failed
 Approved loans to failing banks, railroads, and other businesses
 Aid to home owners near foreclosure
 Public works projects – roads and bridge construction
 Would not offer direct relief to the unemployed
“It would do them a disservice” – Hoover
Refer to your Notes Packet
The Great Depression DBQ
Analyze the documents and answer the short-answer questions that
follow each document in the space provided.
Doc. 1
According to this graph, how did the stock
market crash of 1929 affect workers?
Doc. 2
Then, on Black Thursday, the American dream turned into a nightmare as Wall Street’s Stock
Market Boom turned into The Crash. People were stunned, unbelieving at first. Paper fortunes
had vanished, but money was the foundation of American life. Disbelief turned to panic as
people besieged [stormed] the banks (this one was in New Jersey) trying to withdraw their life’s
savings — often too late. The banks began to collapse and industrial production ground to a
halt.
According to this document, what effect did The Crash have on banks?
Doc. 3
Based on this photograph, what assistance is being
offered to the people standing in line?
Doc. 4
. . . In such a spirit on my part and on yours we face our common difficulties. They concern,
thank God, only material things. Values have shrunken to fantastic levels; taxes have
risen; our ability to pay has fallen; government of all kinds is faced by serious curtailment
[decrease] of income; the means of exchange [money and credit] are frozen in the currents
of trade; the withered leaves [failure] of industrial enterprise [business] lie on every side;
farmers find no markets for their produce; the savings of many years in thousands of
families are gone. . . .
Our greatest primary task is to put people to work. This is no unsolvable problem if we
face it wisely and courageously. It can be accomplished in part by direct recruiting
[hiring] by the Government itself, treating the task as we would treat the emergency of a
war, but at the same time, through this employment, accomplishing greatly needed
projects to stimulate and reorganize the use of our natural resources. . . .
According to President Roosevelt, what two problems did
Americans face in 1933?
Winds of Change
“Now, my friends, let me make clear in as emphatic words as I can find, the
fundamental issue in this campaign. Mr. Hoover believes that farmers and
workers must wait for general recovery, until some miracle occurs by which
the factory wheels revolve again. No one knows the formula of this miracle.
I, on the other hand, am saying over and over that I believe that we can
restore prosperity here in this country by re-establishing the purchasing
power of half of the people of the country, that when this gigantic market of
50,000,000 people is able to purchase goods, industry will start to turn, and
the millions of men and women now walking the streets will be employed.”
TTYN: Explain the difference in recovery philosophy that
Hoover and FDR each had
Winds of Change
FDR Takes Action
"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself “
The New Deal 1
 An unprecedented number of reforms addressing the
catastrophic effects of the Great Depression.
 Unlike Herbert Hoover, who felt that the public should support
the government and not the other way around, Roosevelt felt it was
the federal government’s duty to help the American people weather
these bad times.
The New Deal 1
From a life of privilege to the symbolic representative of ordinary citizens
 FDR believed that is was the government’s responsibility to guarantee
every man a right to make a comfortable living.
 The New Deal – an alternative to socialism on the left, Nazism on the right,
and the inaction of upholders of unregulated capitalism
Small Group Activity
Breaking Down the New Deal
 Group One will examine New Deal One
 Group Two will examine New Deal Two
 Refer to respective handouts
 Present the important aspects of each – whole group setting
The New Deal 1: Group One
The New Deal 2: Group Two
Refer to your Notes Packet
The Great Depression DBQ
Doc. 5
In this cartoon, who does the doctor represent?
In this cartoon, what do the bottles on the table represent?
Doc. 6
According to this document, which group of people would benefit
from Dr. Townsend’s plan?
Based on this document, state one provision of Dr. Townsend’s plan.
Next Unit:
World War II: The End of the Depression