February 4-8 US History Notes

Monday-

What were the main causes of the great depression?

Stock Crash in 1929 on black tuesday

- Bank failures, deposits uninsured, savings lost, no loans, lead to less

- Reduction in purchasing across the board

- Fears of further crashes, stopped buying items, lost jobs couldn't pay back

- Unemployment rate was 25% 

- Companies lose money so they lay people off

- unemployment goes up and less people buy goods as income has dropped

- companies profits falls so low they have to lay more people off or close, cycle repeats itself

- American Ecnonomic Policy with Europe, smoot hawley tariff, high tax on imports, less trade, less ecnomic retalation

- Drought conditions, mississippi, no water, couldn't pay for taxes, farms sold, got no profit, dust bowl

-taxes benefiting rich trickle down theory

- agricultural slump in 1920's due to overproduction

 Tuesday-

Impact the Great Depression people had

-Suicide Rate went up, above 20% mainly 25-64 years old

- Dropping out of School, 30% of teenagers graduated, parents could not pay for school

- Major jobs, famers in midwest were impacted by the dust bowl, automobile factories were closed semi workers out of jobs

- Serves jobs increased during 1930 , more wealthy were not affected

- Selling Apples on corners,  joesph sticker bought 10,000 worth of apples, gave apples to unemployed men, Popularity caused it to fail, streets filled evrery corner were selling apples

- Hoovervilles, were camps of homeless and employed, called becuase of president hoover and make him look worse

- People stand in line for bread and soup- breadline

Wednesday-

1929 Start of the Great Depression, hoover was only in office in 7 months, unemployment went from 3 % to 23%

- Many waited in breadlines lived in hoovervilles

- Believed that our government shouldn't help people threat to capitialism

- Responded to this crisis by getting people back to work

- Established the PECE to coordinate the local welfare agencies

- Tried diffrent ideas to stimulate the economy

- Reconstruction Finance Coropration

- Congress provided the agency 500 million, empowered to borrow 2 billion for the survival of banks, farms, saving etc

- The 2 billion was distrubted slowed bankrupcities

- Most of the good done was erased by tax and tarriff policies

- Viewed as a relief program for big buisnesses only

- The Glass Steagall Act 1933

- Seperated Wall Street from Main Street by offering protection to people who entrust commerical banks

- 1 out of 4 people lost their life savings after banks shut down

- Prohibited bankers from using peoples money to pursue investments

- Emergency Relief and Construction Act

- Approiated funds for fedreal relief loans to new public works

- The public works provisions of the law proved to be a disappointment

- The 300 million relief apprioiation financed the first large public warfare in American History

- States hesitated to apply for the public works, placing them further into debt

- Despite hoovers efforts the public blamed him for the great depression, republicans lost control of congress and white house for almost 2 decades

- Franklin D Roosevelt bevame president during the Great Depression, World War 2 effecitively ended the Great Depression

- Manpower cut unemployment

- Unemployment rates dropped to below 10%

Thursday

- 1930's Entertainment

- Popular dances- Dance Marathons compete for 100 of dollars and do it for hours, who could keep dancing

- Big Band Era

- Lindy Hop, Jitter Bug Jive, Foxrot Dancing, Latin Dancing, Charleston Foxtrot

- SHag and Quickstep

- Types of music, Jazz, Blues, Gospel, Folk

- Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, Glen Miller

- Golden age of Radio

- Twelve Million American households had Radios, 28 million by 1939

- Comedians, Jack Benny, Fred Allen

- Lone Ranger, The Shadow

- Food, Kraft Mac and Cheese, Kool Aid, Toll House Chocolate CHips, Ritz Crackers, Spam

- Candies of the 30's - snickers, tootsie roll pops, 3 muskteers, sky bar, Marshmallow Candy Cones

- Friday

- Jigsaw Puzzles- handcut from wood, libraries had them and you could purchase them.

- Many lost their jobs to the cardboard cut out machines

- Movies

Movies were cheap to see, 10-25 cents only competition was radios

- Gone with the wind 1939

- The Wizard of Oz, King Kong, Frankestien, Snow White and Seven Dwarfs, Dracula, The Blood of the Poet, The Adventures of Robin Hood

- Men's were suits, Illusion of large torso, wide, padded shoulders, Tapering sleeves, V Shaped Neck

- Trousers, creased and cuffed, trench coat, wide ppinted lapels, belt around the waist

- Natural Waistlines, slim look, softly shaped, sleevless and short sleeved blouses, tailored suits,

- Basketball- popular in high schools, enroll in to college and play

- Track and Field

- Baseball was most popular sport because over radio, boxing was 2nd, people couldn't afford tickets, lost lots of money

- scrabble, sorry, monopoly, marbles was still very popular

E-mail me when people leave their comments –

You need to be a member of History 360 to add comments!

Join History 360

eXTReMe Tracker