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

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

3. Unemployment peaked at 25% nationally

4. Long-term unemployment affected men’s attitudes and psyche

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

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

7. Stock Market Crash of 1929 (Dow Jones index average)

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

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

10. No social safety net meant quick homelessness

11. Charities were overrun

12. Selling luxury car just to eat

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

14. Desperation almost to the point of starvation

15. Children were hit the hardest

17. Dust Bowl

18. Migration to California (“famous “Okies”)

19. Route 66 begins to become famous with migration to California

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

21. Hoovervilles

22. Emergency relief included first handouts, food stamps

23. Works programs make the government employer of last resort

24. Rural electrification

25. Social Security System

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

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

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

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

32. Joe Lewis
Joe DiMaggio

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

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

39. Woody Guthrie

40. Female workers increased as percentage of workforce

41. Amelia Earhart

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

43. The economy explodes (GDP shown here)

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

45. 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

46. Rationing

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

48. Patriotism in all aspects of daily life

49. Internment of Japanese-Americans

50. Japanese internment camps

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

52. Development of nylon

53. Development of synthetic rubber

54. Improvements in medical care included antibiotics and new surgical techniques.

55. “Zoot Suits”

56. Rosie the Riveter