Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s (FDR) long tenure as president (1933-1945) included the worst economic downturn and worst foreign war in American history

Throughout the nineteenth century, economic downturns were usually preceded by “panics” where everyone rushed to withdraw their money from banks

Unemployment peaked at 25% nationally

Long-term unemployment affected men’s attitudes and psyche

The Gross National Product (GNP=total goods and services produced) fell to approximately 50% of pre-depression levels

A large number of banks failed, and with each all investors lost their money

Stock Market Crash of 1929 (Dow Jones index average)

Floor of the New York Stock exchange included a lot of speculation and “buying on margin,” resulting in crash of October, 1929

No social safety net meant quick disposal of all assets to avoid starvation

No social safety net meant quick homelessness

Charities were overrun

Selling luxury car just to eat

“Hobos” riding the rail from town to town looking for work

Desperation almost to the point of starvation

Children were hit the hardest

Dust Bowl

Migration to California (“famous “Okies”)

Route 66 begins to become famous with migration to California

Dust Bowl migration made famous by John Steinbeck’s Grapes of Wrath

Hoovervilles

Emergency relief included first handouts, food stamps

Works programs make the government employer of last resort

Rural electrification

Social Security System

Birth rates lowest of 20th century (note 1930 left of graph)

Decline in marriage and divorce rate (note dip toward left of graph)

In fashion, most Americans still tried to project style and success.

Controversial study suggests basic culture and attitudes largely unchanged by Great Depression

Joe Lewis Joe DiMaggio

Jack Benny (left) and George Burns and Gracie Allen helped make the 1930s the golden age of radio

Gangster movies were popular in the 1930s, including actor James Cagney (above)

Woody Guthrie

Female workers increased as percentage of workforce

Amelia Earhart

“Miracle of Production” WWII meant an economic boom that ended the Great Depression

The economy explodes (GDP shown here)

Note spike in US spending, WWII (here depicted as a percentage of GDP)

Government always grows in wartime Government always grows in wartime. In WWII, for example, there was the Office of War Mobilization, the National War Labor Board and the Office of Price Administration

Rationing

The famous Revenue Act of 1942 was the “greatest tax bill in American history” and drove taxes up to pay for the war

Patriotism in all aspects of daily life

Internment of Japanese-Americans

Japanese internment camps

World War II witnessed advances with radar, sonar, rockets, and even primitive computers used to break the German secret codes (above)

Development of nylon

Development of synthetic rubber

Improvements in medical care included antibiotics and new surgical techniques.

“Zoot Suits”

Rosie the Riveter