20.+The+Great+Depression+and+the+New+Deal


 * < Topic 19** .......................................................................................................................................... ** Topic 21 > **

[[image:rotating gif.gif width="48" height="48"]]For more information, s ee

 * ** See United States History II.11 for the causes of the Great Depression **


 * ====** United States History II.12 ** and ** United States History II.13 **for information on the New Deal and the presidency of Franklin D. Roosevelt . ====

[[image:dollarsign.png width="37" height="37"]]

 * ====** Economics ** @E.2.9 on minimum wage laws ====


 * **See Special Topic Page on The New York Stock Exchange**

**Influential Literature Page on The Grapes of Wrath**

[|Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Disability: Was He Successful in Concealing It?]

**__The Great Depression__**
From 1929 to about 1939, the Western world faced the longest and most severe depression ever recorded. In the United States it began with a stock market crash in 1929 that left 15 million Americans without jobs.
 * The loss of confidence in the economy drove most Americans to withdraw from the banks, an event that has reoccurred in the United States every few decades since. In the United States, economic distress because of bank failures led to the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt to the presidency in late 1932.
 * Roosevelt introduced a number of major changes in the structure of the American economy, using increased government regulation and massive public-works projects to promote recovery.
 * Mass unemployment and economic stagnation prevailed and continued to define to 1930s. FDR did successfully reduce unemployment, with lesser 15 percent of the work force still unemployed in 1939 at the outbreak of World War II.
 * After that, unemployment dropped rapidly as American factories were stimulated with orders from overseas for arms and machinery. The depression ended abruptly during United States' entry into World War II in 1941.



[|Photo Essay on the Great Depression] from the Modern American Poetry website of the Department of English at the University of Illinois.



__**The Dust Bowl**__
**See Dramatic Event Page on The Dust Bowl**

Click here or here for more information
 * [[image:http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/44/Oklahoman_boy_during_the_Dust_Bowl_era.jpg/570px-Oklahoman_boy_during_the_Dust_Bowl_era.jpg width="389" height="331" align="right" caption="Oklahoma boy during the dust bowl"]]1930s in the Plains area of the US
 * Oklahoma, Kansas, Texas, Colorado, New Mexico
 * In the years before the Dust Bowl, farmers used poor agricultural practices
 * Grasslands were plowed and planted to wheat
 * Top layer of soil destroyed
 * Large amount of rain lead to plentiful crops
 * However, a drought occurred from 1934 to 1937
 * Nothing the farmers planted grew
 * Soil was gone so seeds blew away in the wind
 * Rapid winds blew dust everywhere and covered the sky
 * "black blizzards"
 * Even homes that were sealed filled with dust
 * 60% of the population was forced to leave
 * Called "exodusters"
 * New Deal agencies were created to rehabilitate the farmland

Click here for a lesson plan on The Dust Bowl from PBS.
 * Click here for a collection of primary sources on the Dust Bowl
 * "Voices from the Dust Bowl" is a collection from the Library of Congress. It includes song lyrics, photos, interviews, and more

Click here for samples from Woody Guthrie's album "Dust Bowl Ballads" Click here for a photo gallery from Ken Burns on the Dust Bowl. [|The Plow That Broke the Plains] (1936), directed by Pare Lorentz shows what happened when over farming created the conditions that led to the Dust Bowl.

__**The New Deal**__
Click here for a New Deal timeline
 * President Franklin Roosevelt's plan to help end the Great Depression
 * The New Deal had 4 components:
 * //Economic Recovery//
 * Stabilize banks, agriculture prices, and bankruptcies
 * //Job Creation//
 * 1/4 of Americans were unemployed by 1933
 * Created special agencies to provide work
 * Workers could create unions
 * //Public Works//
 * Build highways, bridges, school, hospitals, post offices, etc
 * Many are still used today
 * //Civic Uplift//
 * Improve morale
 * Help the greater community as people helped themselves
 * Click here for more information on the New Deal


 * The New Deal Network provides primary resources and lesson plans for the New Deal.
 * Click here for the lesson "Brother, can you spare a dime?" from the Library of Congress

Click here for a collection of primary sources on the New Deal from the Library of Congress

Click here for a listing of New Deal Programs Click here for a list of New Deal Projects by location



__**Additional Resources:**__

Click here for maps on the Great Depression

Click here for APUSH lesson plans from Edsitement