the roaring ’20s and the great depression...the roaring ’20s and the great depression 1920-1940...
TRANSCRIPT
The Roaring ’20s and the
Great Depression
1920-1940
AMERICA BECOMES MODERN
First census to indicate Majority of America lived in urban areas-split between urban and rural.
Creation of “generation gap” and “juvenile delinquency”-split between old and young.
Major shift in ethnic trends brought on by immigration laws.
Movement of African-Americans to urban North.
CULTURE WARS
Nativism– Ku Klux Klan
Fundamentalism– Scopes Trial
Youth Movement– Flappers
Organized Crime– Prohibition
Race and Ethnicity– Immigration Act of 1921 and
1924
– Harlem Renaissance
http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h1398.html
http://webtech.kennesaw.edu/jcheek3/roaring_twenties.htm
CONSUMERISM
High Employment
Commercial Credit
Rise of Madison Avenue
– The “hard sell”
– Mass marketing
Low Savings Rates
New Consumer Luxury
Items
http://www.digitalhistory.u
h.edu/database/article_di
splay.cfm?HHID=454
1920s ECONOMIC POLICY
Sec. of Treasury Andrew Mellon– Believed in “trickle-down”
economics
– Cut or eliminated taxes for rich
Heavy investment in stocks
Protective tariffs
http://www.few.eur.nl/_few/people//smant/m-economics/crash1929.htm
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
Contributing Factors
– Maldistribution of Income
– Protective tariffs
– Overinvestment in Stocks
– Sick industries
– High debt/low savings
– Money Supply
Started in October 1929
Reached worst point in 1933 with 24.9% unemployment
http://www.huppi.com/kangaroo/Timeline.htm
Classic Photo
Taken from http://home.millsaps.edu/mcelvrs/Depression_2001_1.html
Photograph by Dorothea Lang
Why can’t you give my dad a job?
Taken from Minnesota Historical Society http://shop.mnhs.org/pages.cfm?id=57
Living on the streets
Take from Think Quest Economic History Site
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005121/data/germany.htm
Roosevelt Library Photo
Take from Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/great-depression.htm
Also shown on National Park Service, U.S. Department of the Interior http://www.nps.gov/
Jobless Men unable to care for
their families
Taken from Pensito Review http://www.pensitoreview.com/2005/07/page/2/
USA Work Program
Taken from American Life Histories, manuscripts from the Federal Writers’ Project, 1936-1940. Manuscript Division Library of Congress
http://rs6.loc.gov/ammem/wpaintro/wpahome.html
Homeless Beggar
Taken from Bergen County Technical Schools, Teaching American History Grant, Funded by U.S. Department of Education
http://www.bergen.org/ourstory/resources/great_depression/index.htm
How Did Drought, and Dust Storms Compound
Depression Era Problems for Farmers?
Where was the Dust Bowl?
What caused the Dust Bowl disaster?
Severe drought (no rain)
Overgrazing by cattle
Over plowing by farmers
High winds
– All these conditions
destroyed the grasses that
held the soil in place
– These storms were called
“Black Blizzards”
– Parts of the Great Plains
became known as the Dust
Bowl
Scenes from the Dust BowlDust Storm over Oklahoma
Scenes from the Dust BowlDust Storm over Texas
Scenes from the Dust BowlDust Storm over Kansas
Who did the drought hit the hardest?
Migrant workers
– Poor farmers from Oklahoma
and Arkansas headed west
to escape the Dust Bowl
– Many moved to the west
coast to find jobs on farms
– They were not welcomed by
locals
– Locals feared that the
migrants would take local
jobs
– Migrant workers lived in poor
conditions (tents, no water or
electricity)
Conclusion: How did drought, and dust storms
compound depression era problems for farmers?
Farmers were already struggling through the economic depression (due to overproduction of crops)
Lack of rain and the overuse of land made farmers problems worse
Conditions forced farmers of the Great Plains to migrate west where they were unwelcome and faced an even harder life
Many were left displaced/homeless as farm land became useless