1930s

The Great Depression

Major political changes
Culture during the 1930s

AMERICA
At the beginning of the 1930s, more than 15 million
Americansfully one-quarter of all wage-earning workers
were unemployed. President Herbert Hoover did not do
much to alleviate the crisis: Patience and self-reliance, he
argued, were all Americans needed to get them through
this passing incident in our national lives. But in 1932,
Americans elected a new president, Franklin Delano
Roosevelt, who pledged to use the power of the federal
government to make Americans lives better. Over the next
nine years, Roosevelts New Deal created a new role for
government in American life. Though the New Deal alone
did not end the Depression, it did provide an
unprecedented safety net to millions of suffering
Americans.

The First Hundred Days

Franklin D. Roosevelt is elected
President of the United States in
November 1932. Roosevelt initiates a
widespread social welfare strategy
called the "New Deal" to combat the
economic and social devastation of
the Great Depression. The economic
agenda of the "New Deal" was a
radical departure from previous
laissez-faire economics.

New Deal: President Franklin D. Roosevelt

signs the Tennessee Valley
Authority Act, 18 May 1933.

The End of the Depression

By the end of the 1930s, the New Deal had
come to an end. Growing Congressional
opposition made it difficult for President
Roosevelt to introduce new programs. At the
same time, as the threat of war loomed on the
horizon, the president turned his attention
away from domestic politics. In December
1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor and
the U.S. entered World War II. The war effort
stimulated American industry and the Great
Depression was over.

EUROPE
After the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the largest
stock market crash in American history, most of the decade
was consumed by an economic downfall called the
Great Depression that had a traumatic effect worldwide,
leading to widespread unemployment and poverty. In
response, authoritarian regimes emerged in several
countries in Europe and South America, in particular the
Third Reich in Germany. Weaker states such as Ethiopia,
China, and Poland were invaded by expansionist world
powers, the last of these attacks leading to the outbreak of
the Second World War a few months before the end of the
decade. The 1930s also saw a proliferation of new
technologies, especially in the fields of intercontinental
aviation, radio, and film.

CULTURE DURING THE 1930s

During the Depression, most people did not have much
money to spare. However, most people did have radios
and listening to the radio was free. The most popular
broadcasts were those that distracted listeners from their
everyday struggles: comedy programs like Amos n Andy,
soap operas and sporting events. Swing music encouraged
people to cast aside their troubles and dance. Bandleaders
like Benny Goodman and Fletcher Henderson drew crowds
of young people to ballrooms and dance halls around the
country. And even though money was tight, people kept on
going to the movies. Musicals, screwball comedies and
hard-boiled gangster pictures likewise offered audiences an
escape from the grim realities of life in the 1930s.

1930s Hollywood
Opens The Door To
The
By the 1930s Hollywood films
Golden
had made
a major Era
transition
from slient pictures to films
with sound. This was an
historic advancement that at
times must have felt like one
giant step forward and one
step back. Progress can
sometimes cause problems
and this was the case in
Hollywood. Production costs
soared, technical difficulties
multiplied, and many of the
studio most popular silent film
stars were unable to adjust to
the new sound
technology.Opportunities for
actors and directors to work
abroad almost came to a
standstill. Hollywood owned
the patents on the new sound
system and the costs to
European film makers to
puchase and use the system
for the production of their films
was extremely expensive.

1930s Hollywood Opens The

Door To The Golden Era
And if that wasnt enough, the country was still
reeling from the ecomomic effects of the Great
Depression. Then a collective lightbulb went off
among the Hollywood studios as they realized the
need for pictures that would help the public to
temporarily escape from this negative reality. A
door opened and Hollywood stepped in.
The Golden Age of Hollywood was about to begin.
The studios began to produce motion pictures that
served to lift up their audiences during this very
tough American economic period and the public
loved them.

FASHION IN THE 1930s

Even though people were broke in the 1930s they still
didnt dress like it!

Men still dressed up nice, sporting fedoras and doublebreasted overcoats. The boys wore short shorts and tall
socks.

FASHION IN THE
1930s
The women wore dresses
and kept their hair close to
their head. Fur was in and
so were floral patterns.
Makeup was chic and
shoulder pads were very
important until the late
1930s. Although hats were
still popular for women, they
were gradually becoming
less popular. One way to tell
if something is from the
Thirties is if it has initials
engraved or stitched. This
was a common free service
that stores offered. Fashion
in the 1930s was just as
glamorous as the 1920s,
just in a different way.