HL "WHATDUNIT?" The Great Depression Mystery

Intro One of the great mysteries of the 20th century is how the U.S. economy could have gone from a state of unprecedented prosperity in the 1920s to one of unprecedented failure in the 1930s. In the 1920s jobs were plentiful, the economy was growing, and the standard of living was rising. By the end of the 1920s:  At least twice as many people owned their own homes as had at the beginning and most of those houses were equipped with electric lights and flushtoilets, once regarded as luxuries.  Sixty percent of all households had cars, up from 26% in  More teens were attending high school: fewer were working full time.  Leading political and economic figures of the day said that the United States appeared to have reached a "permanent plateau of peace and prosperity."

The Crash By 1933 at least one-fourth of the U.S. labor force was unemployed and about the same percentage was working shorter hours, which reduced their incomes. Families were losing their homes and many were going hungry. Adolescents who should have been in high school were riding around the country in freight cars, looking for work. Although 1933 was the low point of what came to be called the Great Depression, the unemployment rate never dropped below 14% until A decade of hope had been succeeded by a decade of hopelessness.

What happened? The United States possessed the same productive resources in the 1930s as it had in the 1920s. The great factories and the productive machinery that had raised living standards in the 1920s were still present in the 1930s. Workers still had the same skills and were willing to work just as hard as before, and farmers were producing more food than ever. So how could life have become so miserable for so many Americans in such a short period of time?

Whatdunit? A murder mystery is often called a "whodunit" because we want to know who committed the crime.  The mystery of the Great Depression is a "whatdunit" Our objective is to find out what caused the Great Depression and what made it so long? This is still an important topic to cover even if you are not a historians or economists because such a depression could happen again and the more information we arm ourselves with, the more likely we will be to avoid a recurrence.

Clue #1 Get into two groups, one group will research years ( & ) As a group fill out information for clue #1. Keep these questions in mind while researching:  What was happening to consumer prices during the 1920s? 1930s?  Which groups would be most negatively affected by the changes in prices you identified?  What was the trend in the unemployment rate in the 20s? 30s?  Why was that occurring in the 30s?  What was happening to spending by the federal government in the 20s? 30s?  What events might explain government spending patterns in the 20s and 30s?  What events occurred in the U.S. or the world that would affect peoples' lives directly or indirectly in the 20s? 30s? Explain that impact of some of these events.

Clue #2 This time as a whole class find information for clue #2:  Labor and employment  Poverty and income  Economy and government Questions for Clue #2:  How are the overall employment trends related to income?  Why was farm income depressed throughout the 1920s?  What caused the trends in government spending during this time?

Clue #3 Assign each member of the group one of the three articles listed below taken from the Top 25 economic events. Each clue sheet contains the article and a series of questions. Read the article and answer the questions. Students in the group then share the information with each other. Clue #3 Questions  How did innovation and Ford's leadership in employee relations fuel the economic growth during the 1920s?  What role did the Federal Reserve System play in this era?  How did the stock market crash accelerate the economic slide into the Great Depression?

Conclusion Complete independently and turn in for grade. Write question then response, not in essay form. Questions: What conditions in the economy led to the Great Depression? What is the relationship between increases and decreases in employment, consumer spending, and the money supply? Trace the ripple effect when workers lose their jobs. Explain the interdependence of the various parts of a market economy. Explain the impact of the Federal Reserve's policies in the 20s and 30s on the Great Depression.