The Great Depression and New Deal.
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Transcript of The Great Depression and New Deal.
The Great Depression and New Deal.
By Gary Toon
Thesis
• What effects did the great depression and the new deal have on the people all over the world?
Great Depression
• It was a slump in North America, Europe, and other places.
• It lasted from1929 to 1939.• It was the longest
depression ever experienced by the industrialized western world.
• overproduction• Factories were producing more than people
could afford to buy.• With prices rising faster than salaries, many
Americans cut back on their purchases.
• The housing and automobile manufacturer were in decline.
• Car sales dropped by more than one third.• A nationwide banking crisis also contributed to
the depression.• Struggling farmers were finding it Impossible to
repay their loans.• Many of the small banks that had loaned farmers
money also went out of business.
• City banks also failed too.• After the crash, terrified depositors fled into
banks and demanded for their money.• More than 5,500 banks closed between 1930
and 1933.• Many depositors were left penniless.
• Many workers lost their jobs, which they had even less money to make purchases with.
• With declining sales led to more factories closing and layoffs.
• Many companies were forced into bankruptcy.• Of course, these bankruptcies caused even
more layoffs.
The human cost
• The unemployed– Unemployment 3-25%– Salary and hours were cut back (ex:coal miners
$7per day compared to now $1 per day.• Growing poverty– Jobless people lined up at soup kitchens– People tried selling apples or pencils for food.
The human cost
• Impact on families– fathers (no work)– Children (health problems-lack of food/medical
care)– Schools closed (under age of 13 didn’t attend
school at all.)
President Hoover
• Government help– Reconstruction finance corporation (RFC)-gave
money to fund public-works projects ,banks ,insurance companies ,railroads.
– Hoover encouraged private charities to set up soup kitchens.
– Financial status still got worse.
President Roosevelt
• Background– Assistant secretary and vice
president in 1920– 1932 became president– polio (paralyzed in lower body)
• HOPE– Roosevelt pledged “The New
Deal”– Bank holiday- helped to restore
confidence in the banking system.
The New Deal
• Goal: provide jobs for the unemployed
• Goal: aimed to help industry and tackle rural poverty
• Goal: prevent another depression
Obstacles to the New deal
• Supreme court– Several new deal measures to be unconstitutional
• New deal critics– Went to far in regulating businesses and
restricting individual freedom.– Huey long (democratic senator)– Francis Townsend (pensions)
Women in the depression• Workplace– Little competition from
men– Trained to become school
teachers therefore it was hard to find a job that men had lost.
– Wages lower than the men– Most women eventually
lost their jobs
First active lady• Eleanor Roosevelt (FDR’S wife)– Overcame her shyness to begin speaking and
traveling on his behalf.– Helped transformed the role of the first lady.– Urged FDR to appoint more women to
government positions.
African Americans
• South and north– South- cotton prices– 1932-more than half AF in the south were
unemployed.– AF were usually hired last and fired first.
The Indian new deal
• 1924– Citizenship to native Americans.– John collier- commissioner of Indian affairs
Dust bowl
• Black blizzards– Storms that arose so
suddenly. • Heading west– Ruined farm families left
their dusty homes to find work.
– “okies” called this because they came from Oklahoma.
Art and media
• John Steinbeck wrote “The Grapes of Wrath” describing the miseries of the dust bowl.
• Arts– Depression was the theme for photographers and
painters.• Movies and radio– Movies dealt realistically with social problems.– Grapes of wrath, the public enemy
• Radio– Part of everyday life– Entertainment/popular bands and comedians– Soap operas
Social Security
• Old age insurance-guaranteed retired people a pension.
• Aid to dependent children (ADC)– Granted money to help children whose fathers
were dead, unemployed or not living with the family.
Lasting labor reforms
• New laws– Wagner act- promised workers rights to organize
into unions and prohibit unfair business practices.– Also held up collective bargaining-right of a union
to negotiate wages and benefits for all of its members.
Scorecard on the new deal
• Against the new deal– Too much power to the federal government– Government programs threaten both individual
freedom and free enterprise.• For the new deal– Eased many of the problems– Employed millions of jobless people, ending
banking crisis, reformed stock market, etc– Restored faith in government.
video
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoptH8TqasE
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XaI5IRuS2aE&feature=PlayList&p=7C9CAF894BCEE1FB&index=3&playnext=2&playnext_from=PL
Work cited• Davidson, James and Stoff, Michael. America History Of Our
Nation. New Jersey: Pearson education inc, 2007.• lamb, Annette. “The Great Depression." January 1999.January
1999. http://www.42explore2.com/depresn.htm.• Bryant, Joyce. “The Great Depression and The New Deal."
Yale. April 4th 1998. Yale. http://www.yale.edu/ynhti/curriculum/units/1998/4/98.04.04.x.html
• Schultz, Stanley. “Liberalism at High Noon: The New Deal." University of Wisconsin. 1998. http://us.history.wisc.edu/hist102/lectures/lecture19.html