THE GREAT DEPRESSION1929-1939Eastview High School – AP European History

McKay et al, 8th ed. – Ch28, The Age of Anxiety

Essential Questions

How extensive was the Great Depression and what were the social, political, and economic consequences?

Characterizing the DepressionA. The depression of 1929-1939 was worldwide and long

lasting—and it caused many to turn to radical solutions.B. The economic crisis

1. The depression began with the American stock market crash (October 1929).

2. Net investment in factories and farms fell while share prices soared.

3. Many investors and speculators had bought stocks on margin (paying only a small part of the purchase price and borrowing the rest from their stockbrokers).

4. When prices started to fall, thousands of people had to sell their shares at once to pay their brokers, and a financial panic started.

5. Financial crisis led to a decline in production in first the United States and then Europe and an unwise turn to protective tariffs.

C. The absence of international leadership and poor national economic policies added to the depression.

Mass Unemployment

As production decreased, workers lost their jobs and had no money to buy goods, which cut production even more.

Mass unemployment also caused great social and psychological problems.

The New Deal in the U.S.

Roosevelt’s goal was to preserve capitalism through reform—especially by giving aid to farmers by raising agricultural prices and restricting production (via Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933).

The NRA in the U.S.

A. Government intervention in and regulation of the economy first took place through the National Recovery Administration (NRA), whose goal was to reduce competition and fix prices and wages for everyone’s benefit.

B. The NRA was declared unconstitutional (1935), and Roosevelt decided to attack the problem of mass unemployment directly by using the federal government to employ as many people as possible.

C. The Work Projects Administration (1935) employed millions of people.

1. It was very popular and helped check the threat of social revolution.

D. The president’s wife, Eleanor Roosevelt, humanized the New Deal for millions of struggling Americans.

E. Other social measures, such as social security and government support for labor unions, also eased the hardships of the depression.

The NRA helps but not enough

A. Although the New Deal helped, it failed to pull the United States out of the depression.

B. Some believe Roosevelt should have nationalized industry so that national economic planning could have worked.

C. Many economists argued that the New Deal did not put enough money into the economy through deficit financing.

Scandanavian Response

A. Backed by a strong tradition of community cooperation, socialist parties were firmly established in Sweden and Norway by the 1920s.

B. Deficit spending to finance public works and create jobs was used to check unemployment and revive the economy after 1929.

C. Scandinavia’s welfare socialism, though it depended on a large bureaucracy and high taxes, offered an appealing “middle way” between capitalism and communism or fascism in the 1930s.

Britain and France

A. Britain’s concentration on its national market aided its economic recovery—so that by 1937 production had grown by 20 percent.

B. Government instability in France prevented recovery and needed reform.

1. The Socialists, led by Blum, became the strongest party in France, and his Popular Front government attempted New Deal-type reforms.

2. France was drawn to the brink of civil war, and Blum was forced to resign (1937), leaving the country to drift aimlessly.

Questions for your review

1. What are causes of the Great Depression?2. How do governments respond to the depression? 3. What policies do they enact? 4. Which policies are effective?5. What was the unemployment rate in the U.S. at

the height of the Great Depression?6. What was the NRA? 7. What methods does Roosevelt use to address

the problem of unemployment in the U.S.?8. How is the Scandinavian response to the Great

Depression, aka “middle way” different from others?

9. How do Britain and France recover from the Great Depression?