The Depression and the New
Deal
1929 - 1939
The Great Depression
1. October 24, 1929 – the stock market crashed
2. Stock Exchange – is an organized system for
buying and selling shares, or blocks of
investments, in corporations.
1. Great Depression – severe economic crisis.
2. Several problems led to the Great
Depression:
farming income shrank
industry declined
overproduction of goods
cutting wages
growing gap between rich and poor
International Depression
1. During the 1920’s U.S. banks made loans to
stock speculators instead of lending money
to foreign countries.
2. Without these loans from U.S. banks foreign
companies purchased fewer products from
American manufactures.
3. Congress passed the Hawley-Smoot Tariff
4. A tariff is a tax on imported goods
Hoover & the crisis
1. President Hoover thought the economic crisis
was temporary and that prosperity was “just
around the corner”
2. Hoover also thought that government should
not be involved in the economic crisis.
Government Action
1. Eventually Hoover recognized that the
federal government had to take steps to
combat the Depression.
Roosevelt’s New Deal
Section 2
Franklin D. Roosevelt
1. 1932 – FDR – Democratic Candidate
2. The Republicans nominated President
Hoover for reelection.
FDR takes charge
1. FDR wins the election
2. Emergency Banking Relief Act – FDR ordered
banks to close for 4 days to help banks
reorganize and open again
3. FDR – used radio talk to help boost public
confidence
4. Hundred Days – FDR proposals for new
economic programs were quickly approved
by congress.
Assessing the early new deal
1. It did not cure the nations' financial problems
but the worst has passed.
Section 3
Life During the Depression
Life During the Depression
1. A large number of women went into the
workforce, women worked harder at home,
many women made their own clothes, baked
their own bread, canned vegetables, and
women started their own businesses.
2. Frances Perkins – the first women ever to serve
in the cabinet
3. Ellen Sullivan Woodward – started a program to
provide jobs for women
4. Eleanor Roosevelt – FDR’s wife, acted as his
“eyes & ears”
Plight of Minorities
1. In the South more than half of the African American
population had no jobs.
2. Mary McLeod Bethune – founded the Bethune
Cookman College in Florida and was a black cabinet
member
3. Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 – this law restored
traditional tribal government and provided money for
land purchases to enlarge some reservations.
4. Many Mexican/Americans lost their jobs and the
government encouraged them to return to Mexico.
Entertainment & The Arts
1. Radio became popular during the 1930’s
2. Movies were popular entertain so people
could “escape” from the hard times of life.
3. Margaret Mitchell – novel “Gone With The
Wind” was a movie released in 1939.
New Deal Takes Shape
1. New Deal – laws passed during the first 100 days
of office were called New Deal
2. Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) – aimed to
control flooding, help advance conservation and
development and bring electricity to rural areas
along the Tennessee River.
3. PWA – Public Works
4. FDIC – Federal depression Insurance Corporation
5. SEC – Securities & exchange comission