Montes Day 2: Impact of the Great Depression/Hoovers Response

Ch. 11 The Great Depression

Impact of the Great Depression

1

Stock Market Crash

● October 29, 1929: “Black Tuesday”

● Stock prices fell to all time lows.
(Shares were sold for less and less)

2

● Corporations could no longer raise funds/failed

● People who lost their money in stock market could not

repay loans or rents, leading to bank failures

● Demand for goods decreased

● Prices fell, factories closed (business failures), and

workers lost jobs

● People could not pay rent or mortgage & people lost their

homes

Human Impact of Great Depression

THE HUMAN IMPACT OF THE DEPRESSION

No Safety Net for assistance:

● High unemployment rate/no unemployment insurance
● bank failures/ no bank deposit insurance
● Savings gone
● foreclosures everywhere.
● Private charities were overwhelmed
● Many depended on soup kitchens for their food

4

THE HUMAN IMPACT OF THE DEPRESSION

Recording the Misery
Dorothea Lange: Recorded the misery of the people in her
photographs.

John Steinbeck: Wrote about the suffering of migrant
families/farmers during the Depression in a series of articles.

5

Multiple Choice

Who wrote books relating to farmers during the Great Depression?

• Stan Lee

• J.K. Rawlings

• Stephanie Meyers

• John Steinbeck

Multiple Choice

Who is famous for recording the misery of the Great Depression through their photographs?

• Dorothy Wizard of Oz

• Mrs. Polaroid

• Dorothea Lange

• Mrs. Canon

The Dust Bowl

Dust Bowl (1930s):
- Inthe Great Plains and lasted a decade
- Caused by drought and overfarming
- heavy winds carried topsoil away, buried homes

and destroyed harvests.

- Over a million farmers forced to abandon their

farms and move west to California

6

Multiple Choice

What were two basic causes of the Dust Bowl during the early 1930s?

• strip mining and toxic waste dumping

• clear-cutting of forests and construction of railroads

• over farming and severe drought

• overpopulation and urban sprawl

HOOVER FAILS TO HALT DEPRESSION

Hoover Philosophy (rugged individualism; laissez
faire):

•President believed that private organizations should
provide such emergency relief

•He believed it was not the role of the government
to step in, he believed in laissez-faire capitalism.

•He authorized the Mexican Repatriation Act.
7

EOC RELASED TEST QUESTIONS

•ANSWER: G

11

Mexican Repatriation Act

● Passed by Hoover to send Mexican immigrants

back to Mexico

● More than half a million Mexicans were forcibly

sent back to Mexico; many of whom may have
been lawful American citizens who became
separated from their families

Multiple Choice

What was the Mexican Repatriation Act?

• Mexicans were encouraged to enter the country

• Mexicans were given many high paying jobs

• To send Mexican Americans back to Mexico

• Mexicans were given a quick process to citizenship

Hoover Fails to Halt Depression

● Reconstruction Finance Corporation: established to give

emergency loans to banks and businesses, believing cheap
loans would spur business

- Thought it would trickle down to the average American
● “Hoovervilles” - shanty towns of the homeless and

unemployed on the outskirts of cities

Multiple Choice

Hoover established the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to...

• establish new public works projects

• provide loans to businesses

• provide relief to farmers

• regulate the banking industry

Multiple Choice

People who could no longer afford their homes were forced to live in cardboard shacks that they built. What were these shacks called?

• Shantyshacks

• Tenement housing

• Town homes

• Hoovervilles