The 1920s saw economic prosperity and cultural changes in the US, but the stock market crash of 1929 led to the Great Depression of the 1930s, a decade-long period of high unemployment, poverty, and despair as 1 in 4 Americans lost their jobs, banks collapsed, farms struggled, and millions lived in poverty with breadlines a common sight in cities. President Roosevelt attempted to remedy the situation through bold government programs to provide jobs and relief.

1. The 20’s
• During the economic
boom of the "Roaring
Twenties," the
traditional values of
rural America were
challenged by the
Jazz Age,
symbolized by
women smoking,
drinking, and wearing
short skirts.

2. What is the nickname for the
1920’s?
A. Roaring
B. [thrilling]
C. [boring ]

3. What is the nickname for the
1920’s ?
a. The roaring twenties
b. The raging twenties
c. The boring twenties

4. The 20’s • The average
American was
busy buying
automobiles and
household
appliances, and
speculating in the
stock market,
where big money
could be made.

6. • Although
businesses had The 20’s
made huge gains
-- 65 percent --
from the
mechanization of
manufacturing,
the average
worker's wages
had only
increased 8
percent.

7. The carefree 20’s turned into
The Great Depression

9. Mabel Dwight, In the Crowd (1931)

10. • The Great Depression was an
economic slump in North
America, Europe, and other
industrialized areas of the world
that began in 1929 and lasted
until about 1939.
• It was the longest and most
severe depression ever
experienced by the industrialized
Western world.

11. Joe Jones, Wasteland (1937)

12. • When the stock market
crashed in 1929, the world
lost faith in the monetary
systems.

14. • By 1933 the value of
stock on the New York
Stock Exchange was
less than a fifth of what it
had been at its peak in
1929.

15. • President Hoover felt
that the economy
was fundamentally
sound, but had been
shaken by the
repercussions of a
worldwide
depression -- whose
causes could be
traced back to the
war.

16. Squatter's Camp, Route 70, Arkansas, October, 1935.
Photographer: Ben Shahn

17. • Business houses closed
their doors, factories shut
down and banks failed.

18. Banks
• By 1933, 11,000 of the
United States' 25,000 banks
had failed.
Almost ½ of
the banks
failed – there
was no FDIC

19. • Police stand guard outside the entrance to New York's closed
World Exchange Bank, March 20, 1931. Not only did bank
failures wipe out people's savings, they also undermined the
ideology of thrift.

20. Roosevelt won election in 1932
• Roosevelt was
prepared to use
the federal
government's
authority for
bold
experimental
remedies.

21. • By 1933
millions of
Americans
were out of
work. Bread
lines were a
common sight
in most cities.

22. •Hundreds of
thousands roamed the
country in search of
food, work and
shelter. "Brother, can
you spare a dime?"
went the refrain of a
popular song.

24. Unemployment
• African Americans suffered
more than whites, since their
jobs were often taken away
from them and given to
whites. In 1930, 50 percent of
blacks were unemployed.

25. Unemployed men vying for jobs at the American Legion
Employment Bureau in Los Angeles during the Great Depression

27. Unemployment
• unemployment
had risen to
between 12 and
15 million
workers, or 25-
30 percent of the
work force.

28. • By 1932 approximately one out
of every four Americans was
unemployed.

29. Philip Evergood, Sorrowing Farmers (1938)

30. bindle

31. • Farm income fell some 50 percent.

32. Philipinos cutting lettuce, Salinas, California, 1935. Photographer:
Dorothea Lange.
In order to maximize their ability to exploit farm workers, California
employers recruited from China, Japan, the Philippines, Puerto
Rico, Mexico, the American south, and Europe .

33. The photograph that has become known as "Migrant Mother" is one of a
series of photographs that Dorothea Lange made in February or March of
1936 in Nipomo, California. Lange was concluding a month's trip
photographing migratory farm labor around the state for what was then
the Resettlement Administration.

36. Kitchen in house of Floyd Burroughs, sharecropper, near Moundville,
Hale County, Alabama. Summer 1936. Photographer: Walker Evans.

38. Manufacturing
• by 1932, U.S.
manufacturing output
had fallen to 54 percent
of its 1929 level

39. Strikers guarding window entrance to Fisher body plant number
three. Flint, Michigan, Jan.-Feb. 1936. Photographer: Sheldon Dick.

41. Roosevelt put men to work.
One
project
was the
Empire
State
Building

42. The
Golden
Gate
Bridge in
San
Francisco
was also
built in the
1930’s

44. Movies about the Depression
• Cinderella Man
• Seabiscuit
• Grapes of Wrath
• Places in the Heart
• Bonnie & Clyde
• Great Gatsby
• The Untouchables

45. • Gusmorino, Paul A., III. "Main Causes
of the Great Depression." Gusmorino
World (May 13, 1996). Online. Internet:
http://www.gusmorino.com/pag3/great_
depression/index.html. TODAY'S DATE.