Preview Sheet Unit 6: Prosperity and Depression
1. What adjustments did the American people face after World War I?
2. What was the US foreign policy after in the 1920’s?
3. What was the fear of Americans during the Red Scare?
4. What did President Warren G. Harding meant be a “return to normalcy?”
5. What were the impacts of immigration in the US in the 1920’s?
6. How did the Teapot Dome Scandal impact the Harding administration?
7. How did the Kellogg-Briand Pact support isolationism?
8. Describe how Americans used installment buying in the 1920’s.
9. What impact did Henry Ford have on society in the 1920’s?
10. What does it mean to buy stock “on margin”?
11. What changes occurred for women in the 1920’s?
12. What demographic changes occurred for specific groups in the 1920’s?
13. Describe the impact of Charles Lindbergh’s transatlantic flight in 1927.
14. What new methods of media were prominent in the 1920’s?
15. What artistic changes occurred during the 1920’s (Jazz, Harlem Renaissance, etc)
16. What impact did prohibition have on the development of organized crime?
17. How were racial tensions still evident in the 1920’s?
18. What was the significance of the Scopes Trial?
19. How did the Sacco and Vanzetti trial display American xenophobia?
20. How did welfare capitalism weaken the labor union movement?
21. What is the Dow Jones Industrial Average?
22. Describe the effects of Black Tuesday which led the US into the Great Depression.
23. What is the Gross National Product and what happened to it in the early 1930’s?
24. How did Hoovervilles show American resentment to Hoover’s Presidency?
25. What impact did the Dust Bowl have on Americans in the mid west?
27. How did General Douglass MacArthur’s actions toward the Bonus Army help
Franklin D. Roosevelt win the Presidency?
28. How did Franklin Delano Roosevelt launch a greater involvement of government is the social
welfare of Americans?
29. Name and describe some of FDR’s New Deal programs (FDIC, SSA, NRA, FERA, WPA, REA,
AAA, CCC, & TVA)
30. How did the New Deal influence deficit spending?
31. Describe the three R’s of the New Deal?
32. Why did FDR try to “pack” the Supreme Court? Was he successful?
33. Describe the term first “hundred days” and how is it still used today?
34. How did the New Deal help farmers and labor.
35. Great Depression Arts: Books: The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck;
Movies: King Kong; Gone With the Wind; Wizard of Oz
Games: Monopoly Cartoons: Mickey Mouse Radio: War of the Worlds
Fireside Chats
People to know
Warren G. Harding
Ernest Hemmingway
Clarence Darrow
Louis Armstrong
Calvin Coolidge
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Herbert Hoover
Father Charles E Coughlin
Langston Hughes
John Steinbeck
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Mary McLeod Bethune
Sigmund Freud
Charlie Chaplin
Eleanor Roosevelt
Huey Long
Albert Fall
John Scopes
Sacco & Vanzetti
Vocabulary Unit 6
Kellog-Briand Pact
Roaring 20’s
Consumer economy
Warren G. Harding
Xenophobia
“Return to Normalcy”
Sacco and Vanzetti
Teapot Dome Scandal
Red Scare
Great Migration
Palmer Raids
Calvin Coolidge
Communism
New Trends
Nativism
Mass Media
Marcus Garvey
Installment buying
The Great Depression
Technology
Welfare capitalism
Flappers
Black Tuesday
Harlem Renaissance
Dust Bowl
Speakeasies
Herbert Hoover
Prohibition
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Bootlegging
New Deal
19th Amendment
Relief, Recovery, Reform
21st Amendment
Deficit spending
Scopes Trial
Schechter Poultry v. U.S.
The 1920’s
As World War I ended, the United States was now a leading nation in the world. However many Americans
wanted the US to be less involved in world affair which was evident by the Senate’s rejection of the Versailles
Treaty. The 1920’s would be a pivotal decade in US history. The decade’s prosperity was not felt by all and
the Great Depression was just around the corner in the 1930’s.
A Return to Normalcy? – President Warren G. Harding
 Harding called for life to return to the normal state it was in before WWI.
 This included a call for a return to a foreign policy of isolationism.
 Teapot Dome Scandal- Harding’s Sec. of Interior Albert Fall was convicted of accepting bribes for
leasing gov’t land (oil preserves to oil companies).
 Harding’s Presidency was plagued with corruption. He died in 1923.
 African Americans continued the Great Migration from the South into Northern cities.
 changes in population trends (demographics)
Prosperity under President Calvin Coolidge
 Coolidge had a laissez faire approach to business which allowed business to boom again
 The Gross National Product (GNP) rose 40% and the standard of living increased.
 Per Capita Income (income per individual) also rose leaving many with more $$$.
 Coolidge supported business by allowing them to prosper and the postwar recession under Harding had
soon been recovered.
Who was hurt in the 1920’s?
1. Labor and Unions: government did not support strikes and courts even passed injunctions to stop strikes
from happening. No MIN. WAGE or Child Labor Laws.
 Business began to meet some labor needs on their own like health benefits and life insurance
which weakened the workers need for a union.
2. Farmers: Served as a food source for US and Europe during the War, were now overproducing which
lowered prices and hurt small farmers.
3. Native Americans: Now living on reservations with little of the new technologies.
4. African Americans: Earned less than whites; segregation; revival of the KKK; lynching
New Trends, Technology and Mass Media of the 1920’s
1. Automobile (Ford’s Model T $300) more people bought than ever.
2. Autos lead to need for more roads to be built and decreased railroad travel.
3. Tractors replaced horses on farms
4. People began to move to the suburbs
5. People bought items on credit or installment buying (making payments) led to debt.
6. Electricity changed homes, businesses, factories, and productivity.
7. Radio – brought cultures together (homogenization), served as news source, popularized music (jazz),
increased interest in spectator sports, and used for entertainment / storytelling. National Broadcasting
Company (NBC) formed.
8. Motion Pictures – silent movies; entertainment; movie theaters
9. Leading Authors – F. Scott Fitzgerald, Langston Hughes, Ernest Hemmingway, Willa Cather, Edith
Wharton, & Sinclair Lewis
10. Suburban growth – People moved out of the cities which led to more suburbs (transportation methods
helped encourage commuting to and from the city)
Airplanes: Charles Lindbergh’s 1st transatlantic flight in 1927 changed air travel led to
commercial air travel & flying interests of many (Amelia Earhart 1937)
Cultural Aspects of the 1920’s
1. Changing role of women – Many women had worked during WWI and continued to in the 1920’s.
They now had voting rights and felt more liberated. Some called flappers, defined the time with their
bobbed hair and raised hemlines that drank and smoked.
 For traditional women technology such as washing machines vacuums, stoves and refrigerators
made life easier (many still faced political, social & economic restrictions)
 The family unit changed as well (less children and more acceptable divorce)
2. Harlem Renaissance – rebirth of African American culture in Harlem (NYC) that spread nationwide
with writers (Langston Hughes) and Jazz music (Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington)
3. Organized Crime – bootleggers (smugglers) and speakeasies (illegal booze clubs) contributed to
making Prohibition unenforceable.
 Al Capone a.k.a. “Scarface” was the most popular of the organized crime networks in Chicago
that smuggle alcohol as well as gambling and prostitution.
 Prohibition was repealed by the 21st Amendment passed in 1933.
4. Religious Issues: Due to war and the advances in science people began to question the traditional
religious beliefs. Out of these new beliefs fundamentalism grew leading to revivals and support for
literal interpretations of the Bible.
 Scopes Trial (Monkey Trial) – 1925 trial of biology teacher John Scopes who deliberately broke
a Tennessee law that prohibited the teaching of Darwin’s theory of evolution. The trial gained
national attention as Clarence Darrow represented Scopes and William Jennings Bryan sided
with the fundamentalist or religious view. Scopes lost the case and was fined $100, but the
arguments made in the case hurt fundamentalism (Inherit the Wind is based on the Scopes Trial)
Politics
Presidents of the 1920’s: Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, & Herbert Hoover

All were Republicans and had majorities in both Congress and the Courts.

They were for big business and social stability.

Former President W.H. Taft was appointed Chief Justice under Harding.
 Each tried to keep the US out of foreign affairs.
 Kellog-Briand Pact – passed in 1928 was an agreement by 15 nations to not use war as a threat over
other nations (later had 60 nations that agreed to it), but World War II ended this unrealistic agreement.
 In 1922, the Soviet Union (USSR) formed under Lenin.
Economics
 Many people bought from retail stores on credit or installment buying (new products radios, vacuum
cleaners, sewing machines irons, coffee pots, toasters, ovens).
 These products were made by GE (General Electric) which evolved from Edison’s power plant and
electric light business in 1892.
 The US developed into a consumer economy because it depended largely on people’s buying power.
 Stock market speculation increased as the stock market boomed and people continued to buy stocks on
margin (borrowed money from brokers to pay for stocks).
 People felt comfortable with the bull market and many saw profits, but were unaware that a bear
market was just around the corner.
 Some invested their life savings; some put some money in banks.
 Many people enjoyed prosperity in the 1920’s, but the Stock Market Crash of 1929 would bring the
Roaring 20’s into a Great Depression.
The Great Depression
On October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed. The day would go down in history as “Black Tuesday.” As a
result of the crash, series of economic troubles would lead the nation into the Great Depression of the 1930’s.
The federal government under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt would begin a series of “New Deal”
government programs that would involve the government in the economy more than it ever had before.
Economics Before the Depression

Welfare capitalism – labor relations where businesses raised wages, provided benefits, (paid vacations
& health plans). This hurt labor unions.

Wealth was distributed unevenly (% of rich was less than 1% of population) and 80% of families had no
saving and just enough to get by.

Installment buying allowed people to buy the latest products.

Stocks were purchased on margin and people took higher risks to earn higher profits.

There were too many goods and too little demand (overproduction)

Farmers and workers were not doing well but big business was.
Black Tuesday, Oct. 29, 1929

Stock market crashed coupled with a variety of other economic problems would lead the US into the
Great Depression.

The crash exposed a weakness in the economy (market, banks, lack of government law)

The crash is known as the Great Crash.
Effects of the Great Crash

The Gross National Product or GNP (value of nation’s annual production) dropped

Businesses cut their work forces leaving millions unemployed.

Banks that had money invested in the market closed due to losing money (people were left without their
savings if the bank shut down).

Global economy failed (many countries felt the impact of the depression in the US).

Dust Bowl – the Great Plains region was plagued with drought and dust storms leaving the farm
economy in jeopardy (made famous by John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath)

Social and health problems develop as people live in poverty.
President Herbert Hoover’s Reaction to the Depression

Hoover wanted to remain as “hands off” the economy as possible.

He favored programs that aided businesses rather than the people with the belief that the benefits would
“trickle down” to the people.

Bonus Army- name given to unemployed WWI veterans who demanded their war bonuses early.
Hoover sent the army to break up their Wash DC protest blaming them for being influenced by
communists (Gen. Douglas MacArthur led camp raid)

Hoovervilles - homeless shanty towns of cardboard and tin named after the President that many felt was
not doing enough for the people.

By 1932 unemployment was at 25% for whites and African American were double that.
Turning Points: The Election of 1932

Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat) easily won the Presidency from Hoover in 1932.

He pledged a “new deal for the American people.”

FDR calmed Americans by saying “the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.”

His wife Eleanor would forever change the role of First Lady by keeping in close contact to the needs
of the people and writing a newspaper column.

FDR and his “brain trust” of advisors felt that to fix the economy a “new deal” of federal assistance
would be needed for RELIEF, RECOVERY, AND REFORM.

The result would be the most “hands on” approach to the economy and people’s lives that would change
the role of government and laissez faire policies.
FDR’s Presidential actions during the Depression

FDR was elected for 4 consecutive terms (he died during his 4th in 1945).

In his first hundred days in office he pushed through many gov’t programs to create jobs for the
unemployed. Since then, Presidents are rated after their first 100 days.

FDR closed the banks down (“bank holiday”) in March of 1933 to help get the banking system
reorganized.

By June, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) was created to restore confidence in the
nation’s banks (gov’t insured deposits up to $5,000 ($100,000 today).

The FERA or Federal Emergency Relief Association was set up to provide funds to local agencies to
create jobs.

Public’s works programs also created jobs with the help of the CWA or Civil Works Administration to
build roads, parks airports.

The CCC or Civilian Conservation Corps was also a used to create jobs for parks, plants trees, and
other environmental projects.

Other early NEW DEAL PROGRAMS include the TVA, AAA, NRA, PWA, (1933)

After the immediate relief of the first part of the New Deal, a “Second New Deal” was named as newer
programs led into more recovery and reform.

In 1935 both the Works Progress Administration or WPA, and Social Security Act or SSA were
created.

The Wagner Act (Fair Labor Relations Act), allowed for collective bargaining and guaranteed the right
of workers to form unions.

The Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938 – established a minimum wage, limited work hours for
interstate commerce jobs, and ended child labor in the same field.
Critics of the NEW DEAL

Women: Many of the opportunities for jobs were offered to white men.

Minorities: Many received only the lowest job level while whites got the higher level mainly in the
South. Some African Americans did support FDR because he did appoint many as advisors in the “black
cabinet.”

Republicans and Big Business – the New Deal involves the government too much in the economy. New
Deal programs were too much like socialism and taxed the wealthy too much to provide for the poor.

The American Liberty League formed in 1934 to publicly oppose the New Deal.

Socialists and Progressives felt the New Deal was not doing enough for Americans and wanted more
government intervention.

Some did not like the idea of deficit spending.
FDR’s Court Packing Attempt

After the NRA was declared unconstitutional (Schechter Poultry Corp. v. United States) in 1935 and
later the AAA (United States v. Butler) in 1936, FDR made his most controversial move.

FDR tried to increase the number of Supreme Court Justices in order to appoint his supporters to the
court so that New Deal Programs would no be struck down.

His actions were viewed as a violation of the separation of powers and his packing attempt failed.
Evaluating the New Deal

The New Deal helped Americans get through the Depression, but did not end it.

World War II really gave the economy the boost it needed to get out of the Depression.

FDR strengthened the role of the President due to his increase of gov’t programs.

The New Deal strengthened the role of the federal gov’t in our lives.

The New Deal helped preserve free enterprise (other nation’s may have had revolutions)
Review Sheet: Prosperity & Great Depression
1. List two characteristics of the U.S. in the 1920’s for each category.
Political
Economic
Social__________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________
2. What factors hurt US agriculture during the 1920’s?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
3. How does the Federal Reserve Board stimulate the economy?
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
4. Explain how installment buying and an unregulated stock market resulted in economic boom and financial
speculation.
________________________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________________________
5. Describe the following terms of the 1920’s:
 “return to normalcy”:_______________________________________________________________
 Red Scare:________________________________________________________________________
 Scopes Trial:______________________________________________________________________
 Harlem Renaissance:________________________________________________________________
 Gross National Product:_____________________________________________________________
6. Describe the common tie to the Sacco & Vanzetti case, the Red Scare and the revival of the KKK.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
7. How were the 1920’s similar to the 1960’s socially?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
8. How did Hoover and the Republican Party respond to the economic hardships experienced after the stock
market crash of 1929?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
9. What are the “3 R’s” of FDR’s New Deal? Describe each.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
10. What were some of the criticisms of FDR’s New Deal?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
11. Describe the importance of each during the Great Depression:
 Wagner Act:______________________________________________________________________
 Social Security:____________________________________________________________________
 FDIC:___________________________________________________________________________
 Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC):______________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________________
 NRA:____________________________________________________________________________
 PWA:____________________________________________________________________________
 deficit spending:___________________________________________________________________
___________________________________________________________________________________
12. How did the overproduction of goods by factories and farms contribute to the economic losses of the
Depression?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
13. What is interdependence and how was this evident within the global economy in the 1930’s?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
14. What was the significance of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Schechter Poultry v. United States
decision?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
15. How was FDR’s attempt to increase the size of the Supreme Court seen as violation of the separation of
powers?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
16. What are escapists’ novels and movies and how do they reflect the time which they were created?
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________________________________
17. How does the New Deal represent a major change in the way government involved itself in the economic
and social affairs of the nation?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
18. Why do some historians find it hard to evaluate the effectiveness of the New Deal to end the Great
Depression?
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________
19. What is the fundamental difference between the trickle down theory followed by Hoover and FDR’s prime
the pump philosophy in economics.
______________________________________________________________________________________
______________________________________________________________________________________