The Great Depression

EQ: How did the Great Depression affect the lives

of Americans?

Pretest – The Great Depression

1. After WWI ended, a. There was an explosion of people spending money. b. The U.S. economy grew weaker.c. Most people could not afford to buy homes. d. People did not want to spend money.

2. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Congress to pass a series of acts called the New Deal. Which is one way the New Deal helped people during the Great Depression?

a. It gave all people the right to voteb. It let people travel all over the country freelyc. It created jobs for Americans and put them back to work.d. It let all new immigrants become American citizens

3. When stores could not sell their goods, factories

a. didn’t need as many workers.b. needed more workers.c. made more goods. d. borrowed money to buy stores.

4. What happened to bank customers in the 1930s?

a. They earned interest on their savings accounts. b. They sold their shacks to the bank for a profit. c. They asked the bank for loans to buy stocks. e. Many of them lost their life savings when the banks

closed.

5. The Great Depression that began in 1929 hit farmers especially hard. Farmers had not been doing well in the 1920s and several years of severe drought turned the land into a “dust bowl.” What was an immediate result of this?

a. Many farmers decided to grow crops that did not use as much waterb. The government helped farmers by buying their land and equipment c. Many farmers and their families lost farms and moved westd. The government built large dams in the west for irrigation

6. The Great Depression was an economic slowdown in the 1920s and 1930s. Which of the following was one cause of the Great Depression in the United States?

a. the high price of oilb. the end of the gold rushc. the ending of World War IId. the crash of the stock market

7. What made life hard for farmers in the Great Plains?

a. There was a bad drought and the soil turned to dust.b. There were not enough farmers to harvest the crops.c. There was no room to build shantytowns. d. Railroads didn’t go to the Great Plains.

Remember the 1920s …

The fun-loving lifestyle of the 1920s concealed many problems in the American economy. Things came apart when the Stock Market Crash of 1929 hit the U.S. economy. Stocks that had been trading for high amounts of money lost their value dramatically. People who had been rich one day were poor the next.

The stock market crash triggered the Great Depression. It began in October 1929 and lasted into the 1930s. It was the longest period of unemployment and low economic activity in modern times. Banks and businesses failed. By 1932, one in four Americans was unemployed. Farm income dropped 50%. Hungry and homeless people roamed the city streets.

Thousands of people lined up at soup kitchens run by charities. A bowl of hot soup and a piece of bread might be the only meal they would get in an entire day.

The Depression years were also difficult ones for farmers in the Midwestern US. Before WWI, farmers had plowed up millions of acres of grassland so they could plant wheat. A long period of drought in the Great Plains caused severe soil erosion. The soil blew away and formed large clouds of dust. The dust covered everything – houses, barns, roads, and even fences. The area became known as the Dust Bowl. Poor farmers packed up everything they had and drove west. They hoped to find work in the farmlands of California.

Herbert Hoover

Franklin D. Roosevelt

“New Deal”

Summary

Hooverr• told Americans that

economy was strong

• raised taxes to balance federal budget

FDR• New Deal -

program to give people JOBS

• President – 4 terms

Dust BowlCause:overplowing the land + drought + high winds = Dust Bowl

Effect:Farmers left farms & moved west.