comparative history

Comparative HistoryComparative History

Nadya Dooley

5/10/11

The Great DepressionPart 1: The Big Picture

The Great DepressionPart 1: The Big Picture

• The Great Depression pretty much started on Black Tuesday, October 1929

• The NY stock market tumbled, the economic crisis deepened, and thousands of banks failed

• Some European places were hit harder then others, still not fully recovered from WWI

• Agricultural countries ironically fared better

• Some people called the descent “into the economic abyss”

The Great DepressionPart 2: Into The Economic Abyss (1)

The Great DepressionPart 2: Into The Economic Abyss (1)

• People were used to the ups and downs of the capitalist economy, and considered them like the weather

• They expected The Great Depression to just be another bump in the road

• But the wars caused immigration to the US to come almost to a complete stop

• US industrial production fell by a 3rd from 1929 to 1931 and the price of expensive items fell even more

• Farmers tried to grow more crops

and sell them, but this made the price

fall even more

• Unemployment soared on an

unpredictable level

The Great DepressionPart 3: Into the Economic Abyss (2)The Great Depression

Part 3: Into the Economic Abyss (2)

• The great slump destroyed economic liberalism for half a century

• World trade dipped by a third, and US exports crashed by half

• Automobile production halved between 1929 to 1931 and gramophone records for the poor literally stopped for awhile

• But the worst ended after 1932

• By the middle of the 1930’s, there were few states whose politics hadn’t changed from what they’d been before the crash

The Great DepressionPart 4: Roosevelt and Hitler: New Deal and Nazi Reactions (1)


• Roosevelt and Hitler actually had a fair amount in common

• On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler became chancellor, and on March 4th, 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt took the oath as president of the US

• Roosevelt knew hardly anything about economics and Hitler had dropped out of school at age 14

• But Roosevelt had a concern for the suffering and Hitler had a powerful resentment for the rich

• They were both masters at speaking on radio



• New Deal and Nazi labor policies were also shaped similarly by the Great Depression, as well as their methods of dealing with the agricultural depression

• The New Deal Agricultural Adjustment Act set up country committees to control production, whilst in Germany, the the centralized Estate for Agriculture did the same thing

• Both Hitler and Roosevelt successfully disguised the internal problems in their entourages and succeeded in convincing ordinary citizens of their own personal wisdom and dedication

World War IIPart 1: The Big Picture

World War IIPart 1: The Big Picture

• In the 1930’s, Adolf Hitler formed an alliance with Benito Meussolini and began a series of territorial attacks

• The United states tried to stay neutral, but in the end was sucked in

• For people all over the globe, WWII was the costliest and deadliest war in human history

• But less so for the US, as only 2% of the killings were Americans

• Nobody argued against the justice of retaliating against Hitler’s hated Nazis

• WWII also conjured up a lot of racism, especially between the Americans and the Japanese

• 19 million soldiers were killed

World War IIPart 2: An Ocean Apart (1)


• If Britain and America had stood up to the dictators in the 1930’s, WWII may never have happened

• America traded with Britain, using the “Cash and carry” method

• Churchill begged Roosevelt to help save Britain, and Roosevelt finally broke his neutrality act, in return for 99 year leases on 8 British possessions in the Americas

• A group called America First was formed to keep America out of the war

• Roosevelt was reelected for a third time by convincing the people, “Your boys are not going to be sent into

any foreign wars!”. This gave his more

freedom of maneuver to conduct foreign policy



• Roosevelt armed merchant ships and sent them to Britain, but slowly, as only 17% of the population was in favor of a declaration of war on Germany

• On December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor took everyone by surprise

• With 2,400 people killed and 8 battleships immobilized, it was the most humiliating disaster in American history

• At first, the members on America First thought the attack was a hoax, but when they learned it was true, they abandoned their campaign and joined forces with Roosevelt

World War IIPart 4: Race War (1)World War II

Part 4: Race War (1)

• Although most people believe the racism in WWII came from the Germans to the Jews, the enemy the Americans perceived as most atrocious wasn’t the Germans, but the Japanese

• Japan’s aggression stirred the deepest recesses of white supremacism and provoked a response bordering the apocalyptic

• The Japanese were short, round faced, bucktoothed, slant eyed, frequently myopic behind horn rimmed glasses. They called them “yellow bastards”, “little men”, “monkeys”, “vermin” and so forth

• “Jap hunting licenses” were distributed among the hysteria

• Whilst the Americans insults degraded the Japanese, the Japanese insults elevated themselves

World War IIPart 5: Race War (2)World War II

Part 5: Race War (2)

• The contempt from the Americans to the Japanese led to an underestimation of Japanese capabilities

• Before Pearl Harbor, it was well known that Japanese couldn’t shoot, sail, or fly very well

• The Japanese began to think of the Americans as demons, or devils

• For both sides, it was easier to kill the other after dehuminizing it

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