Life in the New Deal Era

Section 3 Chapter 25

America's Gross National Product 1928 to 1939:

1928 $100 billion

1933 $55 billion

1939 $85 billion

 Amount of consumer goods brought 1928 to 1939:

1928 $80 billion

1933 $45 billion

1939 $65 billion

 Private investment in industry:

1928 $15 billion

1933 $2 billion

1939 $10 billion

The Dust Bowl and Migration

50 million-acre region into a wasteland

Great dust clouds hundreds of miles out to sea

Little farms were buried

CCC planting trees from Texas to Canada

Mass migration from plains to California

Headed West on Route 66

Oklahoma = Okies

Competition for migrant work

Mexican Americans began arriving in California but were discriminated against in many New Deal Programs

Competition with Filipino Americans

During 1920’s Filipino population had grown 30,000

Worked in Agriculture

Filipino’s organized and protested wage reductions

Field Workers Union = Mexican and Filipino laborers

Picturing Life in the Depression

Photographs were taken by the federal government

Roosevelt believed these photographs would change opponents minds

FSA pictures were featured in LIFE and TIME magazines

Roy E. Stryker head of the FSA historical section hires Walker Evans – Sharecroppers in Alabama

Gordon Parks – Filmmaker

Margaret Bourke-White and Dorothea Lange – international photojournalists

Picturing Life Continued

Dorothea Lange was most talented

Studied photography and set out to tour world

By time she reached San Francisco she was out of money

Opened a portrait studio and during depression took pictures of homeless

Hired by federal government

Migrant mother is considered a masterpiece

Inspired Californians to defy state’s powerful growers’ associations

Insisted on decent, gov’t sponsored housing for seasonal harvesters

Pictures from the Dust Bowl

Pictures from Dust Bowl

Pictures from Dust Bowl

Evaluating the New Deal Many families untouched by New Deal reforms

NYA helped boost family incomes so children could stay in school

Critics claimed New Deal created a welfare state Promoted deficit spending

Federal gov’t/President became to involved in economy

Supporters argued that expanded role was necessary New Deal established minimum standards for working

Relieved suffering of many Americans

FDIC, SSA, SEC

Rea – in 1935 only 11% of farms had electricity, by 1950 90% had electricity

Electricity let the South diversify its economy and rely less on cash crops

Portraying the Depression Federal Project Number One

Provide work to artists in field of writing, theater, music, and visual arts

Novels Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck

Native Son – Richard Wright

Gone with the Wind – Margaret Mitchell

Portraying the Depression Continued

Films Gold-Diggers – Ginger Rogers

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

Mr. Deeds Goes to Town – Frank Capra

Corruption of wealthy and politicians

Theater Examples of ideas destroying the county

Examples of traditional American Values

Music and Painters Country Music became popular due to Grand Ole Opry

radio show

Gospel Music – cross between traditional spirituals and jazz

Swing Music – smooth big band style http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDQpZT3GhDg

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

Jacob Lawrence – Painted African American Heroes

Georgia O’Keeffe – Painted southwestern desert landscape

Regionalists = Midwestern artist stressed local folk themes Grant Wood – American Gothic

American Gothic