1. Check In Question
What do you think life was like during the Great Depression? Do you think it was easy for families to budget (decide how much to spend on different necessities) during that time? What should families have spent the most money on?

3. Photo Analysis

5. The Depression in Cities
People evicted from their homes slept in parks or sewage pipes
Shantytowns – little towns consisting of shacks
Shacks were made from rusted out car bodies, scrap materials or boxes/crates

7. The Depression in Cities
People dug through garbage cans or visited soup kitchens & bread lines for food

9. The Depression Rural Areas
Many farmers turned to tenant farming when they lost their farms to foreclosure
The Dust Bowl
Farmers in the Great Plains destroyed the land with overproduction of crops
Drought & winds in 1930’s scattered topsoil exposing sand underneath
Many families moved west toward California to restart their lives

11. Effects on the American Family
Many families broke apart under the strain of unemployment
Men abandoned their families and lived as hoboes
Direct Relief (federal system that aids the poor) did not exist in early years
Women canned food and sewed clothes to save money
Working women were targets or resentment

13. Effects on the American Family
Children suffered malnutrition
Many schools closed leaving 300,000 students out of school & sending children to work in sweatshops
Teenagers snuck onto freight trains and toured the country looking for food & adventure

14. "I have moments of real terror when I think we might be losing this generation. We have got to bring these young people into the active life of the community and make them feel that they are necessary."
-Eleanor Roosevelt

15. Psychological Effects
Suicide rates rose 30% from
Achieving financial security became a primary focus in life