Historical Timeline

Financial crash

Banks & factories close; farming

collapses

19291931 1933

Franklin D. Roosevelt

becomes president

1936

The “New Deal”: Support for

unemployment

1937

Of Mice and Men is

published

The 1930s

Depression: an economy with high unemployment, falling income, failing business, decline in production and sales.

The Great Depression: a depression that took place during the 1930s in America

On Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the stock market crashed, triggering the Great Depression, the worst economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world.

It spread from the United States to the rest of the world, lasting from the end of 1929 until the early 1940s. With banks failing and businesses closing, more than 15 million Americans (one-quarter of the workforce)became unemployed.

Our current economic depression has been compared by some to the Great Depression.

The Great Depression

Heavy real estate losses Mass consumption or living above means Uneven distribution of wealth Uninsured banks Stock Market crash

Leading Causes of Great Depression

Causes:Cheap landOver production on wheatThe Dust Bowl

The depression led to a dropin the market price of farm crops,which meant that farmers wereforced to produce more goods in order to earn the same amount of money.

Farming Depression (1920-1935)

A 97-million-acre piece of high, level land in the southern portion of the Great PlainsFound in the states of Colorado, New Mexico, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas.

The Dust Bowl

The increase in farming activity across the Great Plains states caused the precious soil to erode.

This erosion, coupled with a seven-year drought that began in 1931, turned once fertile grasslands into a ‘desert-like’ region.

The Dust Bowl

From 1932-1936 the annual rainfall didn’t exceed 12 inchesLow wheat prices and yields drove farmers from their landsDust clouds lifted and settled over millions of acresFarmers and farmhands moved into California as migrant workersSeventy severe dust storms recorded in 1933

“The Drouth”

Atlantic Monthly article from 1930s:“Dust in the beds and in the flour bin, on dishes and walls and windows, in hair, eyes, teeth, and throats…”

Ceilings collapsed under the weight of the accumulated dust mounds People remember hanging wet blankets across their windows and laying wet cloths over their faces when they went to sleep because of the dust

Dust Was Everywhere

Map of the Dust Bowl

Migration: movement of people from place to place for permanent settlementDrought in the plains forced owners off farmsThe Grapes of Wrath (another Steinbeck novel) depicts this lifestyle

Migrant Workers

Migrant farm workersHomeless/farmless due to drought and “Dust Bowl”Hundreds of thousands of farmers packed up their families and few belongings, and headed for California, which seemed like a promised land.The state’s mild climate promised a longer growing season and, with soil favorable to a widerrange of crops, it offered more opportunities to harvest.

“Oakies”

These poor mid-western farmers were despised and abused in California

Very few found it to be the land of opportunity and plenty of which they dreamed.

“Oakies”

Factories and mills closedManufacturing cut in halfUnemployment rose from 3.2 % to 24.9%Banks ran out of moneyMortgages foreclosed Homelessness and poverty“Riches to Rags”

ForSale

Effects of the Great Depression

Malnutrition Doubt and fear Most severe for men (women’s jobs actually rose) Children had to be more self-reliant Whites took over jobs held by minorities

Living Conditions

President Hoover: Tried to stress self-relianceand to restore confidence but grew unpopular as conditions worsenedPresident Roosevelt:elected in 1932

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself”Fireside chats (radio show) helped boost moraleBegan The New Deal – programs run by government to aid people affected by the Great Depression

The Government Responds

1939: unemployment still at 15%Outbreak of WWII caused expansion of national defense

This stimulated jobs and growth

Federal Government expanded its role in social and economic areas (through The New Deal)

The End of the Depression

Look up the following words in the dictionary and write their definition on your own piece of paper:

ItinerantJuncturesDebrisMoroselyBrusquely

FOR HOMEWORK