The 1930s

Depression - an economy with high unemployment, falling income, failing business, decline in production and sales. The Great Depression Misconception: - Stock market crash was the cause of the Great Depression.

Mass Consumption: Living above means Uneven Distribution of Wealth Uninsured banks Stock Market Crash Farming Depression (1920-1935)
Cheap land (Banks allowed buyers to put 25% down on an acre that cost $15.00) Over production on wheat (five million acres) The Dust Bowl

To attract investors brokers sold stocks on margin -- the investor paid only part of the selling price in cash and borrowed the rest on margin from the stock broker. Brokers borrowed money from the banks to cover the margin.

Extra! Extra! Read all about it! Stock Market Crashed! Sad days ahead!

March 1928 Stock prices soared and the number of shares traded rose sharply Stock prices were 400 percent higher Investors became cautious Fewer buyers drove prices down

October 1929 Black Tuesday

Confidence in stock market failed Investors began selling stocks Margin calls- Banks wanted their money from brokers, and brokers wanted their money from investors.

The Dust Bowl itself was restricted to a 97million-acre piece of high, level land in the southern portion of the Great Plains: Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

From 1932-1936 the annual rainfall didnt exceed 12 inches Low wheat prices and yields drove farmers from their lands Dust clouds lifted and settled over millions of acres Farmers and farmhands moved into California as migrant workers Seventy severe dust storms recorded in 1933

Atlantic Monthly, 1930s

Dust in the beds and in the flour bin, on dishes and walls and windows, in hair, eyes, teeth, and throats People in Cimarron County remember hanging wet blankets across their windows and laying wet cloths over their faces when they went to sleep.

Ceilings collapsed under the weight of the accumulated dust mounds.

Migration - movement of people from place to place for permanent settlement Drought in the plains forced owners off farms The Grapes of Wrath depicts this lifestyle

Migrant farm workers Homeless/farmless due to drought and Dust Bowl Poor mid-western farmers despised and abused in California

Factories and Mills closed Manufacturing cut in half Unemployment rose from 3.2 % to 24.9% Banks ran out of money
The Banking Crisis F.D.R.

Mortgages foreclosed Homelessness; poverty Riches to Rags

For Sale

Living Conditions
Malnutrition Doubt Most severe for men, womens jobs actually rose Children more self-reliant Whites took-over jobs held by minorities

The Government Responds

Hoover: self-reliance, restore confidence, grew unpopular as conditions worsened Roosevelt elected in 1932 The only thing we have to fear is fear itself Fireside chats (Full Transcripts) New Deal

End of Depression
1939 - unemployment still 15% Outbreak of WWII - expansion of national defense, stimulating jobs and growth Federal Government expanded its role in social and economic areas Democratic Party - majority of Americas support for next half of century

Exit Slip Quick Quiz

What is migration? What were the midwestern farmers that were despised and abused in California called?