The Great Depression:

Causes, Casualties and

Results

The Great Depression:

Causes, Casualties and

Results

“Black Tuesday”• Stock market crashes on Oct. 29, 1929

• Brokers could not sell stocks, many worthless

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

Bank Trouble• In 1930, 1,000 banks went out of business,

keeping money of depositors

• Farmers lost everything, could not repay loans from bank

Cycle of Disaster

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)

Click on photo for info about Florence Owens and her family.

Face of the Depression

Florence Owens Thompson and her daughters in 1979.

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

Hoovervilles...

...became the norm.

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

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

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)

• Provided $$ to groups helping needy

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

Reform

• Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC)

• Insured bank deposits so people would feel their $$ was safe in banks

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

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