33 The Great Depression and the New Deal 1933-1939
1932 Elections
1936 Elections
1940 Elections
1944 Elections
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The Economy in Free Fall
The Economy in Free Fall There were many causes that led to the economic downturn and many events and beliefs exacerbated the situation, creating a more difficult problem from which to recover.
Feeling the Depression
Feeling the Depression Everyone felt the Depression, some positively, most negatively.
Effects—Discuss Ate little and poorly Shut off electricity Only bought necessities Didn’t go to the doctor Barely heated homes in the winter, if they had homes Exhausted their savings Wives and children tried to find work Searched for jobs until they gave up in despair Young men went to the rails Emotional depression Disintegration of the family structure Lost homes Increase of disease (typhoid and diphtheria) and malnutrition No school because no clothes (common to see naked children), or schools closed
The Dust Bowl
Hoover as President
Hoover as President
Hoover as President Hoover’s personality was not cut out to be president in such dire times, and the role of the president hadn’t yet been mandated to make necessary programs to help the country during the Depression.
Discuss What steps could Hoover have taken to combat the worst of the Great Depression? What steps could other people have taken? Is it fair to blame Hoover for the worst of the depression?
FDR as President
The First 100 Days
The First 100 Days
The First 100 Days
The First 100 Days FDR brought an energetic set of programs that sometimes succeeded, sometimes failed, but definitely changed the role of the government in people’s lives.
Discuss Compare the New Deal to approaches Presidents Bush and Obama have taken to combat our current “great recession”. Also consider what presidential candidates have proposed. Are there any overlaps?
Moving Left
Moving Left As the country moved to more radical leanings, FDR and his administration responded to this with more left-leaning programs which garnered more support for the New Deal.
The Ebbing of Reform
The Ebbing of Reform
The Ebbing of Reform
The Ebbing of Reform Eleanor Roosevelt pushed for improved rights for African Americans, but the Southern Democrats had too much power for FDR to make much headway in this area; thus, the New Deal did not improve the lot of African Americans substantially but it did make Democrats out of many blacks.
Discuss Would it have been possible to further address race relations during the late 1930s? Was FDR not willing enough, or was it not politically savvy to do so?
The Social Fabric
The Social Fabric The Depression did see some social responses to the economic times, but other trends from the 1910s and 1920s continued.
The New Deal
The New Deal
The New Deal
The New Deal
Discuss Which of the New Deal programs do you feel had the most significant impact on the US? Which do you feel has had the greatest lasting impact on the US?