Great Depression Focus on stock market crash Causes of Great Depression Social Impact (widespread suffering and joblessness) Varied Federal Responses: Hoover v. FDR (New Deal) focus on recovery and relief Legacies: U.S. infrastructure; role of executive; cultural legacies; on-going debate of government’s role in intervening into the health of the U.S. economy

Unemployed Workers in Camden, New Jersey: Typical scene reflecting large population of unemployed in desperate need of work and looking for jobs (1935)

Stock Market Crash: Marks beginning of Great Depression Causes of Crash: lack of regulation; wild speculation=inflated values of stocks leads to borrowing on the margin; dramatic selling off of stocks. Downward spiral of selling off stocks (psychological impact) Impact of crash on banks: investors don’t have cash to pay off banks; banks don’t have cash to pay off depositors. No separation between investment and depositor banks cause problem to go viral

Rush on banks; FDR calls for a bank holiday

Causes of Great Depression International Economic Instability (European war debt) Structural Weakness ( weak sectors of economy, e.g., agriculture) Extreme Unequal Distribution of Wealth Stock Speculation/ lack of regulation/crash Lack of economic intelligence presidential cabinet to deal with the magnitude of crisis

Human Suffering: Bread and Soup Lines, 1932

Human Suffering Cont’d: Unemployed: photo of idle man dressed in worn coat lying down on pier: New York City dock (1935)

Human suffering cont’d Increased crime, malnourishment Homeless WWI vets without pensions Laborers with no rights to organize Difference between urban and rural poverty

“Hoovervilles” Hoover’s 3- pronged approach: Self help; volunteerism; localism Recovery acts fail (e.g. lend money to banks)

FDR and the New Deal New Deal doesn’t end the depression but he serves as a paternal figure of hope. His presidency changes role of executive branch forever

Agricultural Adjustment Act Features: subsidies Displace sharecroppers Considered odd, e.g., killing hogs as segments of the country starved

Dust Bowl Migration, John Steinbeck’s, Grapes of Wrath, 1937

Squatter Camp in California, 1936

Young Oklahoma Mother (age 18) stranded with infant, Imperial Valley, California 1937

National Industrial Recovery Act Section 7A Helps industrial workers Prototype of Wagner Act of 1935 Spurs union mobilization; gives workers courage to strike if employers won’t bargain in good faith A string of strikes rage in 1934 Leaves out ‘factories in the field’

Labor unrest in 1934 : Minneapolis; Ohio (Battle of Toledo); San Francisco

Police and strikers battle: San Francisco, California (1934)

Phase 2 of the New Deal (focuses on relief) "Unemployed insured workers registering for jobs and filing benefit claims at a State employment office"

Social Security Act 1935

Works Progress Administration to Work Projects Administration in 1939

Topeka, Kansas. Works Progress Administration (WPA) mattress making project., ca ca. 1942

Indianapolis, Marion County, Indiana. Education, blind work. Blind Works Progress Administration (WPA) worker operating Braille machine at the Indiana State Library., ca ca. 1942

Marshall, Harrison County, Texas. Education. WPA Literacy class at Park School. Night class., 05/15/1939

Hoover Dam,

Federal Writers Project E.g., John Steinbeck, Zora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, Ralph Ellison, Anzia Yezierska

A play on an iconic image of FDR: Media invokes FDR’s cultural (ideological ) legacy to mark the inauguration of President Obama in 2009