The Great Depression

1. The Great Depression

2. The Roaring Twenties (1920-1929) • Time of excess and celebration • Repeal of the 18th Amendment (Prohibition) • Women have the right to vote • Soldiers returning home from WWI

3. Bull Market • Rising stock prices • Many became rich and invested in risky stock • People buying stocks on credit • Buyers would pay only a 10% down-payment of their stock, relying on high market prices so they could eventually pay it all off

4. Wealth of America • Poorly distributed • Industrial wages (blue collar) rose more slowly than corporate wages (white collar) • Farm incomes declined and suffered from growing debt and falling farm prices

5. Black Thursday: October 29, 1929 • Stock Market crash causes • People buying on credit (necessities) • Government Policies: No regulation of stock market or businesses • Weak International Economy: Other countries still recovering from WWI • Rapid selling of stocks • Values dropped $14 billion

6. Black Thursday: October 29,1929 • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJpLMvgUXe8 • Write down two things that you find interesting about the video and why

7. Results of Black Thursday • Millions of people lose their jobs • Banks recalled loans • People retrieving their money from banks • Banks close and people lose their life-savings

9. President Hoover’s Response • Created new policies to encourage business growth, assuming that this would result in job creation • “Trickle Down” Theory • Idea that business recovers, creating jobs, and then the people recover • Many wealthy individuals held onto government money instead of reinvesting in their businesses, worsening the situation

10. President Hoover’s Response • Reconstruction of Finance Corporation • Gave money to businesses • Hoover Moratorium • Stopped payment of war debt • Hoped to ease world-wide crisis and provide time for recovery

11. President Hoover’s Response • The Bonus March: July 5, 1932 • 20,000 jobless WWI veterans go to Washington, D.C. and demand their war bonuses early • Hoover sends in the U.S. Army to stop protestors • Destroys his popularity

12. “Hoovervilles” • Shanty-towns that cropped up over the nation on the outskirts of major cities • Built by homeless, unemployed American citizens

13. “Hoovervilles” • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISniZI_H7mE What did the residents of Hoovervilles call newspapers?

14. The Dust Bowl • Drought and dust storms in the Midwest due to over-farming • Farmers could no longer afford to plant crops • Forced farmers to leave land and migrate West in search of jobs

15. The Dust Bowl

16. DUSTBOWL CLIP http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEYb9xjAhHI Write down two important pieces of information from the clip

17. Impact of the Dust Bowl • Unemployment rose to an all-time high of 25% • Farmers suffer • “Oakies”- Farmers who moved to California

18. Migrant Workers in the 1930s • Chose California because • Mild climate • Diversity of crops (peas, lettuce, oranges, lemons, pecans, avocadoes, grains, etc.) • Over exaggerated promises

19. Problems in California • The worker to job ratio extremely high • Local and state infrastructures overworked

20. The People • Rejected at the border • Very low wages • Lived in camps near worksite • Discrimination • Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck

21. Of Mice and Men • Based on experiences of John Steinbeck • Takes place in his birthplace of Salinas, CA • Spent summers working on family-worked ranches, and ranches that employed migrant workers • Exposed to the harsher aspects of migrant life and dark side of human nature • American Dream • “"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley“ –Robert Burns “