Week of Feb. 6-10

Monday: presentations

Impact of the Great Depression (October 29, 1929-1939)

Impact
1. Most rich people weren't affected
2. Many incomes dropped dramatically
3. Challenged American families
  1. Economic
    1. No money
  2. Social
    1. Families argued
  3. Mental strains
    1. Led to a lot of suicides
4. Bank loans recalled
5. People too money out of banks as quick as possible
  1. Caused people to riot
6. Divorce rates dropped
7. Birth rates dropped
  1. Too expensive to have a kid during this time
8. Depression changed families
9. People's income dropped
10. Millions of people lost their jobs
How they survived
1. Went to live with friends
2. Built shantytowns
3. Families traveled wherever they could
4. Had to make things last
5. Trading
6. Sold their belongings
Unemployment rate was about 25%
Shantytowns (Hoovervilles)
1. Called Hoovervilles because of President Hoover
  1. Blamed him for poorly helping the country
2. It is a shantytown built by homeless people during the Great Depression
3. Made of cardboard, tar paper, glass, lumber, tin etc..
4. Occurred usually right outside of towns
Hoovers attempts to solve Great Depression
1. Policies to aid businesses
2. Reconstruction Finance Corporation
  1. Trickle down theory
  2. Provided financial businesses with money for loans
3. Glass-Steagall Act
  1. Made getting credit easier
4. Emergency Relief and Construction Act
  1. Provided funds to RFC
  2. Give money to the people
FDR
1. The New Deal
2. Federal Emergency Relief Act
  1. Relief to unemployed
3. Public Works Administration
  1. Build ports, schools, ships
4. Securities Exchange Act
  1. Regulated stock exchanges

Dust Bowl

A series of violent dust storms that greatly damaged the economy and agriculture of the US
Severe drought and a failure to apply farming methods
Effects
1. Drought and dust storms in the Midwest forced many farmers to lose or leave their land and migrate
Causes
1. High winds carrying topsoil
2. Lack of rain

Dorothea Lange

Took pictures of the struggle of the people who suffered from the Great Depression
Photographed unemployed families who wandered the streets

Tuesday: presentations

Presidential Elections

1932
1. Franklin D. Roosevelt
  1. Democratic
2. Herbert Hoover
  1. Republican
3. Roosevelt had 472 electoral votes
4. Hoover had 59 electoral votes
5. Roosevelt won the election
  1. Blamed the Depression on external events
  2. Hoover lost because the people said...
    1. Didn't do enough to help the people during the Depression
1936
1. Franklin D. Roosevelt
  1. Democratic
2. Alfred M. Landon
  1. Republican
3. Roosevelt had 523 electoral votes
4. Landon had 8 electoral votes
5. Roosevelt won the election
6. Landon lost because..
  1. People saw him as a tool for rich people who would dismantle the New Deal

Bonus Army

1924 Congress voted to give a bonus to WWI veterans
1. $1.25 each day over seas
2. $1 each day served in the states
3. Won't be paid until 1945
15,000 unemployed veterans went to DC to demand payment early (1932)
Chief of Staff General Douglas MacArthur
Major Dwight D. Eisenhower
Major George Patton

The Three R's-FDR's goals

Relief
1. Helped the unemployed
2. Civilian Conservation Corps
3. Works Progress Administration
  1. Roads
  2. Hospitals
  3. Schools
  4. Airports
4. Social Security Act (1935)
Recovery
1. Helped the economy after the Depression
2. National Recovery Administration
  1. Limit goods, raise prices
3. Public Works Administration
  1. Public buildings
  2. Roads
Reform
1. Prevent The Depression from happening again
2. Closed banks
  1. Strengthened Federal Reserve
3. Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation
  1. Guaranteed saving deposits
4. Securities and Exchange Commission
  1. Prevent fraud by banks and corporations
  2. Protect investors from illegal financial activities by banks

Wednesday: no school

Thursday: presentations

Deficit Spending

Lower taxes and interest rate
Incentive to spend money
Temporary programs to increase consumer demand

FDR and The New Deal

FDR
1. Marriage
  1. Married to Eleanor Roosevelt on March 17, 11905
  2. 5th cousins
2. Political Career
  1. In 1910 he ran for senate in NY
  2. Democrat
  3. Fought against Democratic political machines in NY
  4. Re-elected for senate in 1912
  5. Supports Wilson's presidential campaign
  6. Lost next re-election campaign for senate
3. Polio
  1. Contracted in 1921
  2. No known cure
  3. Encouraged to continue political career
4. Political Career
  1. Ran for governor of NY
  2. Narrowly won
  3. Ran for president in 1932 and won
  4. Served 4 total terms
  5. Great Depression and WWII
  6. Died just before WWII ended
5. New Deal
  1. Government programs
  2. Created jobs and stabilized economy
6. First New Deal
  1. Immediate recovery
  2. Creating jobs
  3. Providing welfare
  4. Emergency Banking Act
    1. Banks were closed for 4 days
    2. Closed bankrupt banks
    3. Bailed out failing banks
    4. Encouraged people to put savings back into banks
  5. National Industrial Recovery Act
    1. Guaranteed that workers will be allowed to form labor unions
    2. Suspended some antitrust laws
    3. Raise prices
    4. Stimulate economic recovery
  6. Agricultural Adjustment Act
    1. Paid farmers not to farm
    2. Higher pay for workers
7. Second New Deal
  1. More aggressive
  2. More focused on long term
  3. Provided more work than welfare
  4. Works Progress Administration
  5. Social Security Administration

Fireside Chats

FDR
1. Lead nation through Great Depression and WWII
2. Gave out around 30 speeches to give comfort and reassurance (fireside chats)
3. Speeches were over the radio
4. Spoke about banking and unemployment
5. Role of federal government expanded

The Hundred Days

FDR's first hundred days of presidency
Darkest hour of Great Depression
Stock market crashed
Farmers who had land that had been foreclosed talked openly about a revolution
Later on to the next 100 days it was one of the most intense periods of lawmaking

Friday: presentations

Critics of New Deal

Huey Long
1. Senator of Louisiana
2. Criticized Roosevelt for not doing enough for the poor
3. Alternative to the New Deal was "Share Our Wealth"
4. Promised to confiscate any personal fortune over $3,000
5. Proposed to give each American family between $4,000 and $5,000 to buy a home and car
Caughlin
1. Criticized New Deal programs for not completely ridding the nation of economical problems by 1934
2. Caughlin felt that he had been cheated and mislead
3. 1935- Roosevelt got rid of any threat posed by Caughlin
Townsend
1. Promised to open up jobs for younger workers
2. Became leader of political movement that claimed support of more than 25 million Americans
3. The Roosevelt Administration adopted a more austere version of Townsend Plan when it created the Social Security Program

Farm Relief and Rural Development

Agricultural Adjustment Act
1. May, 1933 FDR signed the farm relief bill
2. Meant to reduce export surpluses and rising prices
3. Controlled "basic crops"
  1. Corn, wheat, cotton, rice, peanuts, tobacco and milk
Soil Conservation and Domestic Allotment
1. FDR signed this law on Feb. 19th, 1936
2. Government was paying farms to reduce production to conserve soil and prevent erosion
3. Happened during the Dust Bowl in the 1930's
4. Also hard due to the Great Depression era

Brun's Powerpoint Notes

The Great Depression

Key terms
1. Consumerism
2. Buying on credit
3. Republican Philosophy (Harding, Coolidge, Hoover)
  1. Laissez-faire
  2. Rugged individualism
  3. Trickle down theory
4. Stock
5. Stock market
6. Dow Jones Industrial Avg
7. Buying on margin
8. Watered stock
9. Stock pooling
10. Speculation (w/ stocks)
11. Income inequality
12. Federal Reserve Board
  1. Banker's bank
    1. Stop bank runs
  2. Controls the amount of money in circulation
    1. Controlling inflation and deflation
  3. Controls interest rates for borrowing money
    1. Encourages people to borrow money for big purchases

Blogs

Week of Feb. 6-10

Comments