c. 1929-1941:
The Great Depression
Essential Questions
- How did prosperity of the 1920s give way to the Great Depression?
- How did the Great Depression affect the lives of urban and rural Americans?
- Why did Herbert Hoover's policies fail to solve the country's economic crisis?
- How did the New Deal attempt to address the problems of the depression?
- What major issues did the second New Deal address?
- How did the New Deal change the social, economic, and political landscape of the US for future generations?
- How did the men and women of the depression find relief from their hardships in the popular culture?
Learning Objectives
You will learn:
- How and why the Great Depression occurred in the United States and the extent to which it affected the livelihood and fortunes of various Americans
- How the economic circumstances of the Great Depression influenced patterns of migration and settlement.
- How the onset of the Dust Bowl influenced the displacement and migration of “Okies” during the Great Depression and how that migration impacted those groups and the United States
- How Herbert Hoover became a scapegoat for what ailed the economy at the beginning of the Great Depression and why his “rugged individualism” failed to work.
- How Franklin D. Roosevelt delivered a “New Deal” to the American people that aimed to ease the effects of the depression through government programs and agencies that provided direct government relief, recovery and reform
- To what extent the New Deal fundamentally changed the nation’s political and economic systems
- How and why the New Deal and some of its agencies and programs were opposed by a variety of individuals and groups
- How and to what extent Franklin D. Roosevelt and his “New Deal” could be seen as a success or failure in easing the economic effects of the depression through direct government relief, recovery efforts and reform
- How national political leaders have expressed their perceptions of the “American Dream” during times of prosperity or crisis
- The extent to which American culture continued to flourish during the Great Depression.
The Great Depression
Crowds of people gather outside the New York Stock Exchange following the crash of 1929. Library of Congress.
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Unemployed men queued outside a depression soup kitchen opened in Chicago by Al Capone. February 1931. Wikimedia.
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A Hooverville in Seattle, Washington between 1932 and 1937. Washington State Archives.
The New Deal
This iconic 1936 photograph by Dorothea Lange of a destitute, thirty-two-year-old mother of seven made real the suffering of millions during the Great Depression. Library of Congress.
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Huey Long was an indomitable force who campaigned tirelessly for the common man during the Great Depression. He demanded that Americans “Share the Wealth.” Wikimedia.
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Assignments and Readings
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Old Time Radio
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Let America Be America Again
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Court Packing 2020
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Primary Sources
Herbert Hoover on the New Deal (1932)
Americans elected a string of conservative Republicans to the presidency during the boom years of the 1920s. When the economy crashed in 1929, however, and the nation descended deeper into the Great Depression, voters abandoned the Republican Party and conservative politicians struggled to in office. In this speech on the eve of the 1932 election, Herbert Hoover warned against Franklin Roosevelt’s proposed New Deal.
Huey P. Long, “Every Man a King” and “Share our Wealth” (1934)
Amid the economic indignities of the Great Depression, Huey P. Long of Louisiana championed an aggressive program of public spending and wealth redistribution. Critics denounced Long, who served as both governor and a senator from Louisiana, as a corrupt demagogue, but “the Kingfish” appealed to impoverished Louisianans and Americans wracked by joblessness and resentful of American economic inequality. He was assassinated before he could mount his independent bid for the White House in 1936. In the following extracts from two of his most famous speeches, Long outlines his political program.
Franklin Roosevelt’s Re-Nomination Acceptance Speech (1936)
In July 27, 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt accepted his re-nomination as the Democratic Party’s presidential choice. In his acceptance speech, Roosevelt laid out his understanding of what “freedom” and “tyranny” meant in an industrial democracy.
Second Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1937)
After winning a landslide victory in his 1936 quest for a second presidential term, President Franklin Roosevelt championed again the ambitious goals of his New Deal economic programs and their relationship to American democracy.
Lester Hunter, “I’d Rather Not Be on Relief” (1938)
Lester Hunter left the Dust Bowl for the fields of California and wrote this poem, later turned into a song by migrant workers in California’s Farm Security Administration camps. The “C.I.O.” in the final line refers to the Congress of Industrial Unions, a powerful new industrial union founded in 1935.
Family Walking on Highway (1936)
During her assignment as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Dorothea Lange documented the movement of migrant families forced from their homes by drought and economic depression. This family was in the process of traveling 124 miles by foot, across Oklahoma, because the father was unable to receive relief or WPA work of his own due to an illness.
“Bonus Army Routed” (1932)
This short newsreel clip made by British film company Pathé shows the federal government’s response to the thousands of WWI veterans who organized in Washington DC during the summer of 1932 to form what was called a “Bonus Army.” At the demand of attorney general, the marchers were violently removed from government property.
Americans elected a string of conservative Republicans to the presidency during the boom years of the 1920s. When the economy crashed in 1929, however, and the nation descended deeper into the Great Depression, voters abandoned the Republican Party and conservative politicians struggled to in office. In this speech on the eve of the 1932 election, Herbert Hoover warned against Franklin Roosevelt’s proposed New Deal.
Huey P. Long, “Every Man a King” and “Share our Wealth” (1934)
Amid the economic indignities of the Great Depression, Huey P. Long of Louisiana championed an aggressive program of public spending and wealth redistribution. Critics denounced Long, who served as both governor and a senator from Louisiana, as a corrupt demagogue, but “the Kingfish” appealed to impoverished Louisianans and Americans wracked by joblessness and resentful of American economic inequality. He was assassinated before he could mount his independent bid for the White House in 1936. In the following extracts from two of his most famous speeches, Long outlines his political program.
Franklin Roosevelt’s Re-Nomination Acceptance Speech (1936)
In July 27, 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt accepted his re-nomination as the Democratic Party’s presidential choice. In his acceptance speech, Roosevelt laid out his understanding of what “freedom” and “tyranny” meant in an industrial democracy.
Second Inaugural Address of Franklin D. Roosevelt (1937)
After winning a landslide victory in his 1936 quest for a second presidential term, President Franklin Roosevelt championed again the ambitious goals of his New Deal economic programs and their relationship to American democracy.
Lester Hunter, “I’d Rather Not Be on Relief” (1938)
Lester Hunter left the Dust Bowl for the fields of California and wrote this poem, later turned into a song by migrant workers in California’s Farm Security Administration camps. The “C.I.O.” in the final line refers to the Congress of Industrial Unions, a powerful new industrial union founded in 1935.
Family Walking on Highway (1936)
During her assignment as a photographer for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), Dorothea Lange documented the movement of migrant families forced from their homes by drought and economic depression. This family was in the process of traveling 124 miles by foot, across Oklahoma, because the father was unable to receive relief or WPA work of his own due to an illness.
“Bonus Army Routed” (1932)
This short newsreel clip made by British film company Pathé shows the federal government’s response to the thousands of WWI veterans who organized in Washington DC during the summer of 1932 to form what was called a “Bonus Army.” At the demand of attorney general, the marchers were violently removed from government property.
Slideshows
Videos
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Digital History Textbook
1930s
This section examines why the seemingly boundless prosperity of the 1920s ended so suddenly and why the Depression lasted as long as it did. It assesses the human toll and the policies adopted to combat the crisis of the Great Depression. It devotes particular attention to the impact on African Americans, the elderly, Mexican Americans, labor, and women. In addition to assessing the ideas that informed the New Deal policies, this section examines the critics and evaluates the impact of the New Deal.
Charles Ponzi
The Market Crashes
Why It Happened
The Great Depression in Global Perspective
The Human Toll
The Dispossessed
President Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Bonus Army
The First 100 Days
The New Dealers
The Farmers' Plight
The National Recovery Administration
Jobs Programs
Roosevelt's Critics
The Wagner Act
Social Security
African Americans and the New Deal
Mexican Americans
Native Americans
The New Deal in Decline
The Depression of 1937
Popular Culture During the Great Depression
Hollywood during the Great Depression
Legacy of the New Deal
This section examines why the seemingly boundless prosperity of the 1920s ended so suddenly and why the Depression lasted as long as it did. It assesses the human toll and the policies adopted to combat the crisis of the Great Depression. It devotes particular attention to the impact on African Americans, the elderly, Mexican Americans, labor, and women. In addition to assessing the ideas that informed the New Deal policies, this section examines the critics and evaluates the impact of the New Deal.
Charles Ponzi
The Market Crashes
Why It Happened
The Great Depression in Global Perspective
The Human Toll
The Dispossessed
President Hoover
Franklin D. Roosevelt
The Bonus Army
The First 100 Days
The New Dealers
The Farmers' Plight
The National Recovery Administration
Jobs Programs
Roosevelt's Critics
The Wagner Act
Social Security
African Americans and the New Deal
Mexican Americans
Native Americans
The New Deal in Decline
The Depression of 1937
Popular Culture During the Great Depression
Hollywood during the Great Depression
Legacy of the New Deal