Topic 6.

1 Notes
Name : ____ Period ________

Topic 6.1 suggested reading for homework pages 348-355 student textbook.

Guiding Question: What were the causes of the Great Depression?

(3 sentences minimum)

The Great Depression:

 A worldwide economic downturn that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939
- It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the
industrialized Western world
- Although it originated in the United States, the Great Depression caused drastic
declines in output, severe unemployment, and acute deflation in almost every
country of the world
Causes of the Great Depression:
 Overproduction: the 1920s saw the rapid introduction of many new products like
cars, radios and refrigerators
- Companies were soon producing more goods than people could afford to buy
 Uneven distribution of income and growing consumer debt: not all groups shared in
the national prosperity
 Speculation: in the 1920s, stocks soared in value – many people bought stocks on
margin but then were unable to repay.
 Unsound banking practices: the government failed to regulate effectively the
banking system or the stock market – bankers often invested their depositors’
money in unsound investments and many consumers were buying more than they
could afford on credit
- The overextension of debt made the entire economy vulnerable (Buy now pay
later philosophy)
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqx2E5qIV9s

The Stock Market Crash: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqx2E5qIV9s

 On October 29, 1929, prices on the New York Stock Exchange began to plunge and
soon hit all-time lows (the Stock Market Crash)
- Corporations could no longer raise funds
- People were unable to repay their loans or rents thereby leading to bank failures
- Bank failures led thousands of people lost their life savings
- In this new economic climate, the demand for goods decreased sharply
- Factories closed and workers lost jobs
- Unemployment led to a further decrease in demand thereby leading to more
factories closing
 - Businesses closed, farmers lost their farms, banks failed, and millions of people
were out of work
- Unlike today, there was no “safety net” – unemployment insurance and bank
deposit insurance did not exist – millions depended on soup kitchens for food

New Tariffs.
New tariffs compounded the nation’s woes and helped spread the depression. The government’s aims
were to protect American Industries from foreign competition. The Hawley-Smoot Tariff actually made
things worse. In retaliation, European countries then raised tariffs on American made goods.

Topic 6.2 Notes

Name : ____ Period ________

Topic 6.2 suggested reading for homework pages 356-363 student textbook.

Guiding Question: What effect did the great depression have on farmers?
(3 sentences minimum)

The Dust Bowl: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3ID8DebUQ4

 Occurred during the drought years of the 1930s
- A series of droughts in the early 1930s dried up crops and topsoil, turning the
soil into dust
- Lack of rain combined with heavy winds destroyed harvests and carried soil
away in huge clouds of dust that darkened their land
- Many farmers lost their land/home because they could not earn enough to pay
their mortgages.
- Dust Bowl refugees were generally referred to as Okies.
- Many farmers moved west to California in search for work

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n-rBhbkvtm0
The Bonus Army: Thousands of W.W.1.Veterans marched on Washington demanded early
payment of their W.W.I. army bonus. A riot broke out when the police tried to evict the
marchers from government buildings. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHQv9f9pHoI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxZnYALXpGE

Migrant Mother

The Grapes of Wrath: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM8Q1e95VbY

  John Steinbeck wrote The Grapes of Wrath, a novel about Dust Bowl farmers
moving west to California, in 1939
 Revealed the difficulties and prejudices migrants faced

“Hooverville’s”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EXgrmXeKjOU
 During the Great Depression, shanty towns of the homeless and unemployed
sarcastically called “Hooverville’s,” sprang up on the outskirts of cities
- A shantytown is a section of a city or town characterized by crudely built houses
- As President Herbert Hoover opposed to direct relief (i.e. payments) to the
unemployed due to his belief in “rugged individualism” and laissez-faire
economics (government should not intervene in the market because the market
would fix itself), many unemployed suffered homelessness and hunger
- Hoover at first relied on volunteerism and localism to relieve the effects of the
depression.
- Hoover expected the Reconstruction finance corporation to get Americans back
to work through trickle-down economics
- One successful public works project Hoover was the construction of a major
dam on the Colorado River.

Minorities suffer disproportionately: African Americans were often the last to be hired and the first to
be fired.

Topic 6.3 Notes

Name : ____ Period ________
Topic 6.3 suggested reading for homework pages 364-374 student textbook.

Guiding Question: Name 3 outcomes of Roosevelts first 100 days in office?

(3 sentences minimum)

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt:

 1933 – 1945
- Became president during the Great Depression, easily defeated Hoover
- Promised Americans a “New Deal,” to put them back to work
 The New Deal was a major turning point in American history
 It established the principle that the federal government bears the chief
responsibility for ensuring the smooth running of the American economy
 Roosevelt believed the President’s task was to find a way for the economy
to return to prosperity
 The New Deal marked an end to the long-held view that government and
the economy should be separated
 The New Deal permanently increased the size and power of the federal
government
 Hired Francis Perkins as the first female Cabinet member former social
worker.
The First One Hundred Days: https://florida.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/new-deal-i-fdr-first-
100-days-video/ken-burns-the-roosevelts/
President Franklin D. Roosevelt used his first three months in office to lay the foundations
of the New Deal; his First 100 Days
- Roosevelt explained the New Deal measures in terms of three R’s – Relief,
Recovery, and Reform https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0rjtOWn5mj0
 Relief measures were short-term actions to tide people over until the
economy recovered
 Recovery measures were designed to restore the economy by increasing
incentives to produce and by rebuilding people’s purchasing power
 Reform measures were aimed at remedying defects in the structure of the
nation’s economy, to ensure another depression would never strike again
 Fireside Chats, informal radios speeches to the American people on the
state of the economy and world.
 Emergency banking bill: closed all banks so that they could get their
accounts in order.

The National Recovery Administration:

- Asked businesses to voluntarily follow codes which set prices, production limits
and a minimum wage
- However, in 1935, the Supreme Court found the N.R.A. unconstitutional
Tennessee Valley Authority: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zaI7GsxdmvM

People in the Valley had no electricity or running water. T.V.A built a series of dams in the
region to control floods and generate electricity.

The Agricultural Adjustment Act:

- The government paid farmers to plant less and to kill excess livestock in hope of
increasing crop and livestock prices
- In 1936, the Supreme Court declared the A.A.A. unconstitutional
- In 1938, the second A.A.A. succeeded in raising farm prices by having the
government buy farm surpluses and sorting them until prices went up
Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC): Purpose to regulate banks.
- The F.D.I.C. insured bank deposits so that people would not lose their savings in
case of a bank failure. Insured accounts up to $5,000
Securities and Exchange Commission: Purpose to regulate the stack market.
- Was created to oversee the operations of the stock market, prevent fraud, and
guard against another stock market collapse

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC): Purpose to give young people work.
- Gave jobs to young people, such as planting trees and cleaning up forests
- Members of the C.C.C. lived in camps and received free food

Huey Long: New Deal Critic, Proposed “share the Wealth” program. He believed
that the wealthy should pay higher taxes and the wealth should be distributed to the
poorer Americans.

Topic 6.4-6.5 Notes

Name : ____ Period ________

Topic 6.4-6.5 suggested reading for homework pages 375-389 student textbook.

Guiding Question: How did the New Deal expand economic opportunities for minorities?
(3 sentences minimum)

National Labor Relations Act:

- Often called the Wagner Act
- Gave workers right to form and join unions; to bargain collectively with their
employer

John Maynard Keynes:

 British economist believed deficit spending was necessary to end the depression.
 Putting people to work put money in their hands, he called this “pump priming”
 Funding public works projects put unemployed people to work and primes the
pump.
The Social Security Act:
- It provided workers with unemployment insurance, old age pensions, and
insurance if they died early
FDR’s Court-Packing Scheme:
 On February 5, 1937, FDR announced a controversial plan to expand the Supreme
Court to as many as 15 judges, allegedly to make it more efficient
- Critics immediately charged that Roosevelt was trying to “pack” the court and
thus neutralize Supreme Court justices hostile to his New Deal
- Critics said he was trying to herd in supporters of is New Deal.

Other Rossevelts milestones:

 The President invited many African Americans leaders to advise him. These
unofficial advisers were known as the Black Cabinet.
 Mary Mcleod Bethune was a member of this cabinet In her view a New Deal
equated to a “ New Day” for African Americans.
 John Collier the New Deals commissioner of Indian Affairs proposed an Indian New
Deal. A program that gave Indians economic assistance and greater control of their
own affairs.
 By 1945 Roosevelt had been elected 4 times. His legendary political skills had united
many unlikely alliances. This “New Deal Coalition” brought together southern
whites and northern blue collar workers. Poor Midwestern farms and African
Americans.
 The New Deal Coalition gave the Democratic party majority in both houses of
Congress.
 The “ Welfare State” The government assumes responsibility for providing for the
welfare of children, the poor, the elderly, the sick, the disabled, and the unemployed.

The Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO):

  Labor provisions of the NRA encouraged growth in union membership
- There were disagreements within the American Federation of Labor (AFL) as to
whether it should organize unskilled workers in major industries
 The AFL decided against it
 However, John L. Lewis of the Coal Miners Union and others organized
the Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO) within the AFL to
organize these unskilled industrial workers
 CIO’s goal was to organize unskilled workers on an industry-wide basis
 The United Automobile Workers Union of the CIO introduced a new
technique, the sit-down strike
 In 1936 members of the CIO newly formed UAW staged a sit-down strike
at General Motors most important plant.
 A sit-down strike is where workers remain in the plant at jobs but do not
work

Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact:

 In 1928, the U.S. joined 61 nations in signing the Kellogg-Briand Peace Pact,
renouncing the use of war as an instrument of national policy