The Great Depression
A. Cause and Effect
B. Stock Market Crash
C. Bank Collapse
D. Business effect
E. Dust Bowl
F. Herbert Hoover Responds
G. Rising Discontent
H. The 1932 Election
4
big causes from 1920s
1. Overspending and investing
2. Overproduction of goods
3. Income inequality
4. Farm and mining troubles
 4 consequences
1. Stock market crash of 1929
2. Bank and business failures
3. Social impact
4. Worldwide depression
 Rumors
spread in 1929
 Big sell-off in October caused panic 10-24-29
 “Black Tuesday,” October 29, 1929
• Worst economic day in history
• Drop of ~$16 BILLION
 Banks
had given LOTS of loans
• People rushed to withdraw money
 “Run on a bank”
 By 1933, 1/5 banks gone from 1930
 Federal Reserve didn’t help
• Led to “deflation”
 America’s
economy dropped
• Consumers stopped buying
• Businesses couldn’t get loans
 Companies fired workers
 By 1933 unemployment reached 25%!
• ~15 million without work
 Great Depression spread EVERYWHERE
 Similar
problems in Europe
• Borrowed $ from U.S. after WWI
• Less European goods purchased
• Tariffs were raised on both sides…
 Smoot–Hawley Tariff taxed +20,000 items!
 Demand
for crops also dropped ]
• Prices sunk to 50% of 1929 levels
• Farmers couldn’t pay off loans
 Led to bankruptcy & foreclosure
 Great
plains = America’s farm
• Years of bad management
 SEVERE drought in 1930s
• Wind = topsoil gone
 “Dust Bowl”
 2.5
million left Great Plains in 1930s
 Many took Route 66 to California
• Called “Okies” but from many states
 Not welcomed
 Artistic influence
• John Steinbeck
• Woody Guthrie
 Continually
talked about good days to come
 Refused
direct federal aid, encouraged
“volunteerism”

Focused on indirect relief from individual states
and the private sector
 “Mexican
Repatriation program”
 Reconstruction
Finance Corp. (1932)
 Financed public works projects
 Historical
argument
 Video
 Counter
argument article - link
 Hoover
took office, unemployment 4.4%
 Hoover
left office, unemployment 23.6%
 Many
blamed Hoover for the Depression
• Begging, soup kitchens, bread lines
 Towns
of homeless people popped up
• Nicknamed “Hoovervilles”
 Bonus
Army = WWI veterans (1932)
• Wanted promised bonus payment
 Congress refused
 Police/soldiers
cleared out veterans
• Violence erupted, camp caught fire
• Opinion of Hoover’s dropped lower
Democrats
ran Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)
•Attacked Hoover’s policies and prohibition
Roosevelt
won 57% of popular vote.
• Would forever change government