The Great Depression

Post War Declining Economy

• Post War = Large Debt and Not Enough Jobs• Low Pay• Workers Demand Higher Pay and Shorter

Hours• Labor Unions

1920’s

• Inflation = Fast Riches• Investments and Credit• Move to Urban Areas• Increase in High School and College• Increase in Women’s Rights

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coB4WYjzAzA

Women’s Rights

• 19th Amendment = Women Vote• Women get involved in Government• Flappers

Prohibition

• Alcohol is Illegal• Speakeasies Erupt• Bootleggers Rise • Rise of Gangsters• Ended by 21st

Amendment

The Automobile

• Henry Ford, Model T• Assembly Line– Faster Production of Goods in Factories

• Created Jobs for Unemployed

Harlem Renaissance

• Rise of Jazz• Celebration of African American Culture in

America• Songs, Spirituals, Poetry, Literature, Dance

The Party Ends

• Stock Market Crash• Banks Fold• No Federal Backing of Banks Leads to Huge

Loss for Many Citizens• Extreme Unemployment• Soldiers Do Not Receive War Pay– March to Washington

Hoovervilles

• President Hoover pulls federal money out of programs that help citizens

• Instead helps businesses and railroads• Villages of Unemployed People Form Outside

Cities

Roosevelt’s New Deal

• Sought to Restore Confidence in Nation’s Banks

• Sought to Create Federal Jobs for Unemployed• Dams Give Electricity to Many Houses for the

First Time• AAA Helps Boost Farm Industry

The Second New Deal

• WPA Sought to Employ Workers to Fix Roads, Hospitals, Parks, and Schools

• Social Security Act– Helps Elderly and Disabled Who Cannot Work

Impact of the Great Depression

• Divorce Rates Soar• Marriage and Birth Rates Fall• Men Left Looking For Work,

Some Never Return• Children Drop Out of School to

Work• Many Immigrants Deported to

Preserve Jobs• Minorities Struggle Most

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQ_lizW5zSI