Practice test questions 13.2 PP and Practice test questions

Economic Hardship Shakes the Cities The stock market crash signaled the end of boom times and the beginning of hard times. As investors mourned their losses, Americans watched the economy stagger into the Great Depression. In the cities and on the farms, desperate poverty gripped the nation. Even after prosperity returned, those who lived through the crisis would remember the pain and worries of the depression. Tested by extreme hardship, this generation of Americans forged a character and will strong enough to overcome economic ruin and restore prosperity.

Economic Hardship Shakes the Cities 1. Unemployment 1921-1929: 3.7% 1933: 24.9% Effect: hunger and homelessness Factory workers that kept their jobs would take pay cuts; sometimes becoming unemployable when they could not take care of their appearance

Why do you think this unemployment office required guarding? Economic Hardship Shakes the Cities Unemployed men gathered outside a busy New York City unemployment office during the 1930s. New York police officers stood guard. Draw Conclusions/Shoulder Partner: Why do you think this unemployment office required guarding?

Economic Hardship Shakes the Cities Analyze Graphs: How many millions of people lost their jobs between 1928 and 1933? During which years did unemployment increase the most?

Rural America Struggles with Poverty In cities and towns across the nation, Americans faced a terrible plight. The numbers of the unemployed, homeless, and hopeless increased like a casualty list in some great war. In rural America, people fared no better. In fact, sometimes their condition was even worse. Farmers had been suffering even before the Great Depression. Falling commodity prices and accumulating debt had made it a struggle for farmers to keep their heads above water. Many failed to stay afloat and sank so deep that they lost their farms.

Families lost their farms to banks The Dust Bowl Rural America Struggles with Poverty Crop Prices Fall Families lost their farms to banks The Dust Bowl Effect: Many families were forced to migrate (2.5 million people left the Plains states)

Draw Conclusions: Why did commodity prices fall after 1919, even though the Great Depression was years away? NOTE: Farmers were already suffering BEFORE the “Great Depression”.

Dairy farmers poured out their milk as part of a 1932 protest. Rural America Struggles with Poverty Dairy farmers poured out their milk as part of a 1932 protest. Infer/Shoulder Partner: What can you infer about the price farmers received for milk in 1932?

Analyze Maps: Which two states appear to have been hardest hit by erosion? What is unusual about California's location compared to other destinations?

Combined with the severe drought, how did the planting of wheat lead to the loss of topsoil and the dust storms?

Dust Bowl Questions 1. What features of land and climate make the Great Plains a good farming region? Rich soil, ample growing season and flat land 2. What features of land and climate make the Great Plains a poor farming region? Frequent droughts and strong windstorms What caused the black blizzards of the 1930s? -- drought and heavy winds that blew away topsoil exposed by poor farming practices How did farmers destroy the regions natural protection against severe weather? -- farmers destroyed the sod, which had a complex root system that held in topsoil and prevented it from eroding

Hard Times Hit Most Americans One of the ironies of the depression was the word itself. In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, an economic slump was called a “panic” or a “crisis.” President Hoover used the word depression to describe the state of affairs because he thought it sounded less severe than the other terms. But before long, Hoover’s “depression” gave way to the “Depression” and then the “Great Depression.” The term described not only a state of mind, but also an economic reality. It showed a despondent America, filled with people overwhelmed by seemingly inescapable poverty. Not only did the depression make victims of the men and women who lost jobs, it also was an economic and emotional crisis that profoundly affected U.S. society.

Hard Times Hit Most Americans Wealthy individuals often had to accept menial (low=paying) jobs to make a living. After losing his wealth in the stock market crash, former millionaire Fred Bell sold apples on a street corner.

Cause and Effect: The impact of poverty on Americans Savings lost due to bank failures Homelessness, Hoovervilles, migration, health problems, social problems, discrimination unemployment Farms lost because of economic problems and natural disasters

“last to be hired and first to be fired” 3. Mexican Americans Hard Times Hit Most Americans 1. Family Life Constant fear of losing your job, children quit school, many took odd jobs 2. African Americans “last to be hired and first to be fired” 3. Mexican Americans Increased competition for job plus discrimination Many white Americans wanted immigrants and their children to be returned to their home countries

Poverty Strains Society “No one has starved” –President Hoover Some did starve and thousands were going hungry Children suffered most Poor diet & inadequate healthcare Stresses on Families Crowded living conditions Unemployed men ashamed Women feared how they would feed their families if husbands lost jobs Common to fire married women so men could have jobs Factory workers, teachers, etc. Women found jobs in service industries (cleaning, typing, nursing all considered ‘women’s work’.)

Poverty Strains Society Discrimination Increases Americans in competition with each other for jobs African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian- Americans suffered and were only offered low paying jobs Black unemployment = 56% in 1932

19. What does it mean to say that factory workers sometimes went “from unemployed to unemployable”? 1. They started off wanting to work but changed their minds. 2. They took on a ragged appearance that kept employers from hiring them. 3. They physically broke down and were no longer able to handle difficult work. 4. They rejected the reduced hours and shortened workweeks offered by their employers. 2. They took on a ragged appearance that kept employers from hiring them.

18. Which region experienced the most severe effects of the Dust Bowl? 1. the Midwest 2. the Pacific Coast 3. the southern Great Plains 4. the Appalachian Highlands 3. the southern Great Plains

Why did some Americans push for Mexican American and Asian American repatriation? 1. Housing in the Southwest was extremely limited. 2. Some white people wanted to eliminate minority competition for jobs. 3. Mexican Americans and Asian Americans mostly came from Oklahoma, so they were outsiders in the Southwest. 4. Mexican Americans and Asian Americans were mostly sharecroppers who were thrown off the land they had been farming 2. Some white people wanted to eliminate minority competition for jobs.