The economic boom-and-bust in America in the 1920s and 1930s. 5-4.2 Summarize the causes of the...

The economic boom-and-bust in America in the 1920s and 1930s.

5-4.2 Summarize the causes of the Great Depression, including overproduction and declining purchasing power, the bursting of the stock market bubble in 1929, and the resulting unemployment, failed economic institutions; and the effects of the Dust Bowl.

The Stock Market Crash

•The stock market crash of 1929 marked the end of the economic boom of the

1920s and the start of the Great Depression in the 1930s.

▫It exposed the economic weaknesses of the United States.


•Not everyone could buy the products that came from American factories because wages were low and farm prices were depressed. Although some American consumers had been able to continue to buy using credit, such borrowing could not be sustained.


•When investors recognized this slowing of the economy, they suddenly began selling off their stocks. This sale was made worse because some investors had borrowed in order to buy stocks and could not pay off their loans as the value of stocks declined. The stock market crash resulted.

•Turn to page 322 in your social studies text and read the section on the Stock Market Crash.


• Similar to what happened to farmers following WWI a decade earlier, factories suffered from overproduction and many industries began to lay off workers as the decade came to an end.

Depression: Unemployed: the Unemployed Union: marchers south on Broadway: Camden New Jersey typical scene reflecting large population of unemployed in desperate need of work and looking for jobs,

After the Crash…

•Once the stock market crashed, a domino effect of economic struggle began to occur.▫Unemployment continued to rise.▫Consumers were unable or unwilling to

buy, so businesses failed.▫Failed businesses laid off more workers.

After the Crash…▫Unemployed borrowers were unable to pay

off their bank loans.▫Loss of confidence in the baking system

lead many people to try to withdraw whatever savings they had.

▫With limited income from loan payments, the banks could not pay their depositors.

•Such runs on the banks caused bank failures. People lost what little money they had been able to save.

The Great Migration begins!

•Many people (black and white) migrated to the north to…▫Find jobs▫Avoid prejudice▫Leave miserable

farm economy (Dust Bowl)

Double click on Dust Bowl to go to a website relating to the Dust Bowl.

Photograph of a Shack for Negroes Only at Belle Glade, Florida

http://library.thinkquest.org/TQ0312210/Dustbowl.html

The Dust Bowl

Farm Security Administration: Destitute pea pickers in California. Mother of seven children

Dust Storm in Rolla, Kansas; “05/06/35; Dear Mr. Roosevelt, Darkness came when it hit us. Picture taken from water tower one hundred feet high. Yours Truly, Chas. P. Williams.” Photo: Massive Dark cloud approaching village in forefront.

Life of an American in the 1930s•No job, no money, no home, no food!

▫Homeless people made shanties (make-shift homes) made out of scrape lumber and empty boxes in parks and other public places called “Homerville's” named after president Herbert Hoover.

Photograph of Shanties at the Santo Tomas Internment Camp

Life of an American in the 1930s• No job, no money, no home, no food!

Many men and women took to the highways or rode the trains from town to town looking for work or a handout and became know as hoboes.

Between Bakersfield and Fresno, California. On the Freights. Twenty years old and he has been hopping freight cars on the bum for two years

Life of an American in the 1930s

Roseville, Placer County, California. On the Freights. Five o’clock in the morning in Roseville switch yards for freight going over the Sierra

Bakersfield, California. On the Freights. Helping a newcomer hop a freight.

Work citedca. 1935Collection FDR-PHOCO: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain PhotographsNational Archives Identifier: 195658


4/1945Records of the Office of the Secretary of AgricultureNational Archives Identifier: 594942

4/14/1935Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain PhotographsNational Archives Identifier: 195691

ca. 2/1936Collection FDR-PHOCO: Franklin D. Roosevelt Library Public Domain PhotographsNational Archives Identifier: 196261

http://arcweb.archives.gov/arc/action/ExternalIdSearch?id=195658





Work cited

1945Records of the Office of the Chief Signal OfficerNational Archives Identifier: 840222

4/19/1940Records of the National Youth AdministrationNational Archives Identifier: 532082







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