The Great Depression

1. The Great Depression

2. The Crash > Economy Compared to Television, 1929

3. The Crash > “It’s so nice to have Daddy home all the time now,” Life, 1930

4. Unemployment > Deportation of Mexicans, 1931

5. Unemployment > Jobs Listed by Race, 1939

6. Poverty > Hooverville, 1933

7. Hoover > “We can do it!” 1931

8. Hoover > “Fundamentally, the ship was sound,” New Yorker, 1932

9. The New Deal > Historiographic Debates • 1952, Herbert Hoover • New Deal failed because it “attempted to collectivize the American system of life.” • 1940s-1960s, “liberal consensus” historians • New Deal was a “pragmatic” revolution that expanded the role of the federal government in American life. • mid-1960s, “New Left” historians • New Deal was fundamentally conservative, it could but failed to redistribute power in American society; it protected American capitalism. • 1970s-2000s, contemporary historians • New Deal could not have done more than it did, because of conservative Congress, the lack of adequate government bureaucracy, and localist and antistatist political culture.

10. The New Deal > Stages • 1932 - FDR elected • First New Deal (“the hundred days”) • 1934 - Strike wave • 1934 - Leftist Democrats win the majority in congressional elections • Second New Deal (“the second hundred days”) • 1935 - Supreme Court unanimously declares NRA unconstitutional • 1936 - FDR reelected in a landslide • 1937 - Court-packing • FDR proposes but fails to implement unpopular Supreme Court reform • 1938 - Republicans and conservative Democrats regain seats in the House • As a reform movement, New Deal is over

11. New Deal > Private FDR Photograph, 1930s

12. New Deal > Public FDR Photographs, 1930s

13. New Deal > FDR Giving a Fireside Chat, 1937

14. New Deal > Banking Crisis Advertisement, 1931

15. New Deal > One Hundred Days Cartoon, Lynn Item, 1933

16. New Deal > One Hundred Days Cartoon, Houston Post, 1933

17. New Deal > TVA: Big Ridge Dam, TN

18. New Deal > Song from Thanks a Million, 1935 They started up the NRA to keep the big bad wolf away Then FDR began to be a headache to the GOP Now that codes are everywhere we’ve got initials in our hair The farmer’s IOU is O.K. since Congress formed the AAA The CCC chops down a tree and sells it pronto FOB … The RFC and NHA led millions to the AAA The AAA has crops it cuts and all of us are going nuts! --- NRA - National Recovery Administration AAA - Agricultural Adjustment Administration CCC - Civilian Conservation Corps RFC - Reconstruction Finance Corporation NHA - National Housing Authority FDR - Franklin Delano Roosevelt GOP - Grand Old Party FOB - Freight on Board

19. New Deal > NRA’s Blue Eagle Photograph, 1934

20. New Deal > CCC Worker Photograph, 1930

21. New Deal > Farm Holiday, 1930 and Archibald Willard, The Spirit of ‘76, 1876

22. The Dust Bowl > Dust Storm Approaching Startford, Texas, 1930s

23. The Dust Bowl > Map of Erosion and Dust on the Plains

24. The Dust Bowl > Traveling from South Texas to the Arkansas Delta, 1936

25. FSA > Dorothea Lange, Migrant Mother, March 1936

26. FSA > Arthur Rothstein, Steer Skull, Pennington County, South Dakota 1936

27. FSA > Arthur Rothstein, the same skull on dry sun-baked earth

28. FSA > Arthur Rothstein, the same skull, cows grazing in the background

29. FSA > Walker Evans, Burroughs Photographs, Hale County, Alabama, 1936

30. Second New Deal > Social Security Poster, 1936

31. Second New Deal > Works Progress Administration poster

32. 1936 Elections > Literary Digest and Gallup polls Literary Digest Final Poll Landon 57% Roosevelt 43 States for Landon 32 States for FDR 16 A.I.P.O. (Gallup) Final Poll Roosevelt 55.7% Landon 44.3 States for FDR 40 States for Landon 6 On the line 2 Election Results Roosevelt 61% Landon 49% States for FDR 46 States for Landon 2 January 1936 Gallup Poll By Income Roosevelt Landon Upper third 41% 59% Lower third 70 30 Reliefers 82 18 October 1936 Gallup Poll Farmers Roosevelt 52.6% Landon 42.1% Women Roosevelt 51.4% Landon 44.8% Young People (21–24 Years) Roosevelt 57.4% Landon 38.4% Reliefers Roosevelt 78.8% Landon 14.0%

33. 1936 Elections > Percentage vote for Roosevelt in black districts, 1932 and 1936

34. Labor > Wagner Act, 1935: United Automobile Workers poster addressing Ford workers

35. Labor > Charlie Chaplin, Modern Times, 1936

36. Labor > A CIO poster quoting FDR

37. Labor > The rise in union membership

38. Labor > Strike patterns

39. Labor > Sit-down strike in Flint, MI

40. Labor > UAW organizers Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen pose for press photographers, River Rouge Plant, May 26, 1937

41. Labor > They were approached by Ford Service Department men

42. Labor > Ford men attacked

43. Labor > Reuther and Frankensteen immediately after the incident

44. Labor > Women’s sit-down strike in a Goody Nut Shop, 1937

45. Labor > Sit-down strike cartoon, New York World-Telegram, March 1937

46. Labor > CIO photomagazine, Photo-History, July 1937

47. Backlash > Memorial Day Massacre, May 29, 1937

48. Backlash > The Hilo Massacre, August 1, 1938

49. Court Packing > Schecter Poultry Corp. v. United States, 1935 • A small company - small firms objected the most to limits on hours and wages • Charles Evans Hughes for the majority: “Extraordinary conditions do not create or enlarge constitutional power.” • Congress cannot relegate power to the executive branch, even in an emergency • NRA infringes on “freedom of contract,” through industrial price and wage codes

50. Court Packing > “Fall In!,” Richmond Times Dispatch, 1937