The Great Depression

The Roaring 20’s• 1920’s brought rapid expansion to Stock Market• Wall Street peak in August 1929• Many American bought good on installment plans (credit)• “New Women”• Prohibition

Stock Market Crash 1929• September 1929, stock priced began to decline• October 18, panic set in• Major cause of Great Depression• Investors and lending banks bought big blocks of stock with no

prevail.

Black DaysBegan October 24 – Black Thursday.• Sell-a-ton began• 12,894,650 shares were traded

Black Tuesday – October 29.• Crash was under way• Stock prices collapsed completely • 16,410,030 shared traded • Billions of dollars lost• Thousands of investors wiped out

Bank Failures• Stock Fever• Banking with little to no guarantee and no deposit

insurance.• Through 1930’s 9,000 banks failed• Savings were lost• Surviving banks unwillingly gave loans. • Bank failure caused ripple effect and mass panic

Supply and No Demand• Crash brought all wage buying to a halt• Lead to production reduction and workflow slow down• Unemployment • Repossession of items bought on credit

Smoot-Hawley Tariff 1930• Helped protect American companies• Raised tax on imported good to America • Lead to less trade with America

Dust Bowl

American’s Struggle• “Poor mans divorce”• Cigarette smoking became popular• Alcoholism • Birth rates fell• 2 out 5 American’s saw movies once a week• Radio flourished• Rise in crime

FDR – Happy Days are Here AGAIN

• Franklin D Roosevelt – won 1932 election• Promised New Deal• Provided jobs and securities for struggling Americans• End of Great Depression when Japan bombed Pearl Harbor on

December 7, 1941

Resources • Kelly, Martin. (n.d.) Top 5 Causes of the Great Depression. Retrieved

on March 22, 2015 from http://americanhistory.about.com/od/greatdepression/tp/greatdepression.htm

• History.com Staff (2009) New Deal Retrieved on March 20, 2015 from http://www.history.com/topics/new-deal

• History.com Staff (2010). Stock Market Crash of 1929. Retrieved on March 20, 2015 from http://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties

• History.com Staff (2010). The Roaring Twenties. Retrieved on March 22, 2015 from http://www.history.com/topics/roaring-twenties

• Ushistory.org (2015). The Great Depression. U.S. History Online Textbook. Retrieved on March 20, 2015 from http://www.ushistory.org/us/48.asp