This slideshow is a basic overview of the Great Depression using material extracted from my class' 8th grade U.S. History book.

1. Casualties and
Results
Causes,
Casualties and
Results

2. “Black Tuesday”
•Stock market crashes on Oct. 29, 1929
•Brokers could not sell stocks, many worthless

3. Cost of Depression
•$30 billion lost within a month
(amount of WWI)
•By 1933:
•85,000 businesses had failed
•12 million Americans had lost
their jobs
•Nearly 1,000 families were
losing their home EVERY
DAY
•Many committed suicide due to
financial trouble

4. Bank Trouble
•In 1930, 1,000 banks went out of business, keeping
money of depositors
•Farmers lost everything, could not repay loans from
bank

5. Cycle of Disaster

7. Dust Bowl & Drought•Caused by severe drought,
wind erosion, no crop
rotation, extensive
plowing destroyed heavy
topsoil.
•Some dust storms took off
as much as six inches of
topsoil; ruined farms.
•Modern dust storms still
occur; they are referred to
as ‘haboobs’ (Photo to left
is Phoenix, 2011)

8. Click on photo for info about Florence Owens and her
family.
Face of the Depression

10. Florence Owens Thompson and her daughters in 1979.

11. Impact on Americans•Parents left children at
orphanages so they could eat
•Other scrounged in alleys and
garbage cans for food
•Some slept under newspapers
on the street, others hopped
trains to other towns to beg
for food
•Families moved into
“Hoovervilles”
•Made of tin, wood, and
tar paper

12. Hoovervilles...

13. ...became the norm.

14. Hoover Responds
•Says “Prosperity is just
around the corner.”
•Asks Congress to give
money to banks
(BAILOUT!) and railroads
to get economy moving.
Doesn’t work.
•Runs for re-election, but
loses to FDR & his “New
Deal”
Herbert Hoover
Franklin Delano
Roosevelt

15. FDR’s First 100 Days
•Closed banks for four days to
allow investigation of bank
records
•Explained process to public via
radio during first “fireside chat.”
Sixty million listened.
•Congress passed 15 major bills to
help economy with three goals:
•RELIEF for the needy
•RECOVERY for the economy
•REFORM programs

16. Relief•Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)
•Employed young men for
environmental projects for food,
lodging and small salary
•Social Security
•Provided help to elderly and
unemployed
•Works Progress Administration
(WPA)
•Provided jobs building public
works (roads, bridges, etc.)•Federal Emergency Relief Administration (FERA)

17. Recovery
•Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)
•Developed electricity and other resources in
poor TN River Valley
•National Recovery Administration (NRA)
•Created labor and industry standards to help
revive American industry
•Agriculture Adjustment Administration (AAA)
•Raised ag. prices by paying farmers to reduce
amount of crops/animals sold

18. Reform
•Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)
•Insured bank deposits so people would feel their
$$ was safe in banks

19. NLRA & NLRB
•Congress passed National
Labor Relations Act allow
workers to join unions to
bargain with employers for
improved wages and
working conditions
•As a result, created
National Labor Relations
Board to settle disputes
between employers and
workers

20. Unlikely Source
•World War Two ultimately
brought the United States out
of the Great Depression.
•Production of military
goods
•“Can-do” spirit of citizens
at home
•Women enter the
workforce