The Great Depression

10th Grade Social Studies

Learning Targets

✴ Analyze the causes and consequences of major political, economic, and social developments of the 1930's with emphasis on:✴The Great Depression✴The Dust Bowl✴The New Deal

Causes of the Great Depression✴ Stock Market Crash of

1929✴ Due to uneven wealth

and speculation/buying on credit

✴ Lasted from 1929-1941

✴ The Banks collapsed✴ Bank runs

✴ Businesses closed✴ Unemployment rose✴ Tariffs

✴ Hawley-Smoot Tariff✴ Global Depression

What Really Caused it?!

✴ Two Economic Theories:✴ Keynes: the lack of government interference in the

economy caused the depression.✴ Friedman: contraction in the money supply

caused the depression.✴ Economic hardships were already being felt

before 1929 in rural America AND Europe!✴ Congress and President Hoover reacted with poor

and misinformed economic decisions.

Hard Times

✴ Many families lost their life savings, their homes, jobs, and farms.

✴ Unemployment plagued cities and rural towns.

✴ Hoovervilles: makeshift shantytowns

✴ Hooverflags: pants pockets turned inside out

The Dust Bowl

✴ Rural America suffered the most during the depression.

✴ Because of drought, loose topsoil, and high winds, huge dust storms devastated the plains regions.

✴ The dust killed livestock, filled rivers, killed fish, and seeped into houses.

✴ Many families migrated out of this region and many moved to California in search of jobs.✴ Many lost their farms and

homes due to foreclosures

Family and Minorities

✴ Family values struggled ✴ Unemployment and

depressed fathers✴ Children dropping out

of school/running away

✴ African Americans were the last to be hired and the first to be fired.

✴ Many Mexican Americans forced to leave the U.S.