Great Depression

• By 1932, the Depression had led to 25% of America's workforce being unemployed
• 1000s of companies had gone bust
• Main reason why President Hoover lost the 1932 election to Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR)
• The Depression ended Republican dominance of the 1920s
• Democrats controlled both houses of congress and most state governments – this lasted until the Second World War
• Roosevelt's presidency saw a significant change in the role of federal government
• Voluntarism


  The idea that help for the poor and unemployed should be provided by voluntary organisations like churches
• Old South


  The area of the south-eastern USA that comprised the Confederate states during the US Civil War (1861-65). This was the area that had legal segregation of blacks and whites and where much of the violence and intimidation against black Americans was committed
• Lynching


  The impromptu execution of a person through hanging, usually by a mob. Surprisingly, in the 1930s, lynching was not a federal crime
• Only a small portion of population directly affected by the Wall Street Crash, as you had to own shares to lose out
• Between October and December 1929 – unemployed went from 500,000 to 4m as business downscaled or closed down
• By 1933, the figure was 15m (not including part-time workers)
• Consequently, public opinion and confidence in the economy was shattered. This plunged the economy into a deep depression
• Real wages fell 16% (1929-31)
• GNP fell <50% (1929-33)
• Construction fell 78% (1929-31)
• Investment fell 98% (1929-31)
• Manufacturing fell 54% (1929-31)
• Laissez-faire


  The Republican administration's reluctance to change their policy, which had brought huge prosperity during the 1920s
• 1929 – USA did not have a national system of unemployment welfare or old age pensions
• Helping the unemployed = state responsibility, but only some states did this, and even they struggled
• 1932 – Detroit – on the verge of bankruptcy as a city, if it didn't get federal aid
• Main help for the poor = voluntary organisations
• 1930 – soup kitchens and breadlines set up in towns to provide direct help
• Some unemployed tried selling apples on the street corner to make a few dollars
• Nearly 1m left home to search for work in other states, riding on railroad freight cars
• 1931 – Colorado – survey said children were insufficiently fed – spread of disease e.g. typhus
• Suicide rose by 14% between 1929 and 32
• Marriages fell by 10% (1929-32)
• Family breakdowns – dramatically rose – fathers leaving to work elsewhere in the country
• State frictions – states wanted to help 'their own', not someone who arrived from another state
• Rapid rise in racial discrimination
• Preferential hiring of whites
• California – tens of thousands Spanish-speaking Hispanic workers were effected by a drop in demand for agricultural products
• 500,000 Mexicans forced to leave before 1933
• To encourage migrants to go home, some states barred non-US citizens from public works programmes
• 1932 – customers in New York boycotted Chinese laundries to drive them out of business and make them leave the US
• Black Americans – continued discrimination, usually first to be fired when a company downsized
• Wisconsin – white workers at a steel factory went on strike to have black American workers fired
• Old South – discrimination more extreme – increase in lynching (24 deaths in 1932)