Depression and the
New Deal: The USA,
1929-1941
GCSE History Revision Notes
By Dane O’ Neill
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Contents
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 5
Topic Key Words: Economic Depression; Hoover; Soup-Kitchens; Hoovervilles; Roosevelt; New
Deal; Reform; Relief; Recovery; Hundred Days; Alphabet Agencies; American Farmers; Tennessee
Valley Authority; National Recovery Administration (NRA); Public Works Administration; Federal
Emergency Relief Administration (FERA); Social Security Act: World War Two; Lend-Lease.......... 5
1.1 - THE EFFECTS OF THE WALL STREET CRASH: THE COLLAPSE OF BUSINESS AND INDUSTRY ........................... 6
Immediate Consequences of the Crash .............................................................................................. 6
Unemployment and its effects............................................................................................................ 6
1.2 - THE FAILURES OF HOOVER ’S GOVERNMENT TO DEAL WITH THE DEPRESSION ............ Error! Bookmark not
defined.
Hoover: ‘A future bright with hope’ .................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Economic policies and failures ............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Hoover’s Unpopularity ......................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
1.3 - HOOVER AND THE ‘BONUS ARMY MARCHES’, JUNE 1932 ...................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Election of Roosevelt (1932) ............................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Roosevelt and the ‘New Deal’ .................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Relief: ....................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Recovery: ................................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Reform: .................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.1 - THE NEW DEAL: ROOSEVELT REASSURES THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ............. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Roosevelt’s ‘Fireside Chats’ ................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Roosevelt’s Inaugural Speech, (1932): Reassurance and Hope ........... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.2 - STABILISING THE AMERICAN ECONOMY : THE FIRST ‘HUNDRED DAYS’....... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Banking and Finance ............................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Glass-Steagall Act (1933)............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) .................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Roosevelt takes America off the ‘Gold Standard’ ................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Beer Act (1933) ............................................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.3 - THE NEW DEAL HELPING FARMERS , RURAL AMERICANS , THE UNEMPLOYED , AND REFORMING AMERICAN
BUSINESSES: THE ALPHABET AGENCIES .......................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The Farming Relief Act, 1933 ............................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The ‘Alphabet Agencies’ ...................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Administration): ...................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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FERA (Federal Emergency Relief Administration): ................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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The National Recovery Administration (NRA):......................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC ...................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Public Works Administration (PWA): ...................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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The Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC): ........................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
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The Rural Electrification Administration (REA): ....................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.4 - THE TENNESSEE VALLEY AUTHORITY (TVA) ........................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
2.5 - THE SOCIAL SECURITY ACT (1935) ....................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.1 - HOW EFFECTIVE WAS THE NEW DEAL? .................................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
The New Deal: Successes ..................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
The New Deal: Failures and Limitations............................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.2 - CRITICISMS AND OPPOSITIONS TO THE NEW DEAL .................................. Error! Bookmark not defined.
Opposition from the Supreme Court ................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Opposition from the Republican Party ................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Opposition from others… ..................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
3.3 - WW2 AND AMERICAN ECONOMIC RECOVERY , 1939-1941 ................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
Lend Lease............................................................................................ Error! Bookmark not defined.
Increased Employment and opportunities for Women ....................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
KEY TERMS AND DEFINITIONS ....................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.
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Depression and the New Deal: The USA,
1929-1941
Introduction
Throughout the 1920s, America experienced an economic boom on an unprecedented scale.
Unemployment was at an all-time low, ordinary Americans had more disposable income
than ever before. American businesses and industry was thriving, factories were massproducing luxury goods and commodities to meet the demand from the consumer. For
many Americans, they were living the ‘American Dream’; however, in 1929, the New York
Stock Exchange completely collapsed, and America was plunged into the deepest economic
recession in living memory. Entire fortunes were lost overnight, people lost their jobs as
thousands of American businesses and banks went bankrupt. Where people ate in in luxury
restaurants, now they ate from charity soup-kitchens and bread lines; Americans lost their
homes, and moved to makeshift shanty towns made from scrap metal and cardboard. The
American Government under President Hoover seemed powerless to help; in fact, Hoover’s
government believed that it was not the responsibility of the government to help the poor,
the sick and the needy. During Hoover’s Presidency, the Great Depression worsened, and
poverty, misery, and unemployment spread through America like a cancer affecting the
lives of millions. Things would change, however, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected
President in 1932: Roosevelt promised the American people a ‘New Deal’ that would bring
Relief, Recovery, and Reform to American financial and social systems. Roosevelt
Presidency was characterised by successive government legislation and Alphabet Agencies
that aimed to stabilise and fix the broken economy, reform the banking system, and provide
ordinary Americans with the social and financial relief that they desperately needed.
Roosevelt’s popularity was so great and his policies so successful that he served four
consecutive terms as the American President, and he lead the US through the Great
Depression and through the Second World War.
WE WILL EXAMINE
1) HOW SERIOUS WERE THE EFFECTS OF THE DEPRESSION ON THE AMERICAN PEOPLE?
2) HOW DID ROOSEVELT DEAL WITH THE DEPRESSION : THE NEW DEAL AND THE ‘HUNDRED DAYS’
3) HOW FAR WAS THE NEW DEAL SUCCESSFUL IN ENDING THE DEPRESSION IN THE USA?
Topic Key Words: Economic Depression; Hoover; Soup-Kitchens; Hoovervilles;
Roosevelt; New Deal; Reform; Relief; Recovery; Hundred Days; Alphabet Agencies;
American Farmers; Tennessee Valley Authority; National Recovery Administration
(NRA); Public Works Administration; Federal Emergency Relief Administration
(FERA); Social Security Act: World War Two; Lend-Lease
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Key Issue 1: How serious were the
effects of the Depression on the
American people?
1.1 - THE EFFECTS OF THE WALL STREET CRASH: THE COLLAPSE OF BUSINESS AND
INDUSTRY
Immediate Consequences of the Crash
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The consequences of the Wall Street Crash were devastating.
Economic recovery was impossible in the short term. Between 1931 and 1933, America was
crippled even further as people and financial institutions struggled to cope with the
pressure of recession.
Between 1929-1932, 20 000 businesses closed.
Industrial production decreased by 45% between 1929 and1932.
America’s national income was reduced from $80billion dollars to just $40billion.
5000 banks went out of business between 1929 and1932 (just over half of the country’s
banks).
12,000 people were being made unemployed every day.
Between 13 - 15 million people were unemployed by 1933.
Agricultural prices plummeted: farmers could no longer sell their produce for a profit.
People deliberately set fire to forests in order to get temporary employment as firefighters.
Surplus agricultural stock and crops were destroyed: crops were left to rot, livestock was
culled (killed and burned), debts remained unpaid, and farmers were either evicted or
forced to give up their independence and become tenants.
1 in 20 farmers were being evicted every day.
23,000 people committed suicide in one year – this was unprecedented.
Unemployment and its effects
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Many people were made homeless, and were forced to live in shacks made from cardboard
boxes and scrap metal. Small towns full of these makeshift houses began appearing across
the country, and they were nicknamed ‘Hoovervilles’ - after President Hoover.
Bread lines became a common feature in American cities and towns.
The Salvation Army and other charities gave out free food.
Special soup-kitchens were set up to feed starving people: the soup was nicknamed
“Hoover Stew”.
Families were separated as mothers and fathers roamed the country looking for work. 1-2
million people became wandering labourers and migrant farm-workers.
People could no longer afford to get married, and the birth-rate fell dramatically.
The land in the mid-west was also unusable due to a drought caused by excessive farming
during the boom years.
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