Warren Harding
Won the 1920 election
First president during the roaring twenties
“return to normalcy”
run the government like a business
Currup: Ohio gang
Calvin Collage
Took over when Harding died
won the 1924 election
The government should let businessmen handle their own affairs
A man of few words
Herbert Hoover
Won the election of 1928
Height of Republican Ascendancy
Consumer Goods Industry
Making lots of Durable goods: automobile industry was booming
Lack of Diversity: Only construction and automobiles
Rise in the use of Credit
people were buying nearly everything on credit, especially stocks. This caused a lot of inflation and when the market crash they were in lots of debt
Mellon plan
Tax cut plan proposed in the 1920s
Tax cuts to the richest people so that they would have more money to expand their businesses and pay workers
Tickle down economics → never works
increased the wealth gap
Economic/political interactions between the US and Europe during the 1920s
Many European countries owed the US money
after WW1, the US wanted to remain out of European affairs and economies → Return to normalcy
The US wanted peaceful resolution after WW1 but European powers still had tensions
Republican presidents pursued pro-business and laissaz-faire policies
Farm Life in the 1920-1930
In the 1930s, many farms faced foreclosure due to low prices for agricultural goods
The Dust bowl furthered these difficulties and many farmers like the Great Plains → Okies
Isolation
The US didn’t want to interfere with European issues
Return to Normalcy
Navitism
Rise of the KKK: more national and against immigration
Palmer raids: looking fro suspected russian spies → stop communism, they targeted immigrants: eastern European and Russian
Emergency Quota act: 3% of an ethnicity, limit people based on origin
Eugenics movement: change the genetic pool of the US to encourage some people to reproduce and discourage others → Sterized and put in Mental institutions and prisons
Great Migration
African Americans moved from the south to northern cities
met with lots off racism: Red summer and Tulsa Race massacre
Stock market crash cases
Speculation: Not buying stocked based on history/knowledge → bigger peaks and troughs
Buying on margin: with credit/borrowed money → inflation
Interest rate hike by federal government
Stock Market crash effects
Bank runs: people withdrew their money in the bank → banks were shutting down
People stopped buying goods and unemployment tripled
Causes of the Great depression
Overproduction: The automobile and construction industries had too much supply with too little demand
Overuse of Credit
The Smoot-hawlet Tariff → decline in global trade
Bank failures and panics
Inflation and collapse in the money supply
Herbert Hoover Presidency and Rugged Individualism
Believed that the American people should just work harder → American Individualism: hard work brought it’s own rewards
$160 mil in tax cuts
vetoed relief bills
gave money to businesses, banks, and public works projects
Smoot-Hawlet tarrif
Hoover raised tariffs on thousands of imports to increase the sale of American goods
increased the global depression and caused a collapse in world trade
FRD road to Presidency
FDR became governer of NY and managed it well during the Great Depression
growing resentment towards Hoover
easily became president in the election of 1932
Dust bowl causes
Overfarming of monocultures (wheat) in the Midwest → soil lost nutrients
Massive droughts and heavy winds causes dust storms
Dust Bowl effects
farmers left the Midwest to go to California and Washington to find jobs
Called Okies
Okies
Farmers who left the Midwest during the Dust bowl to find jobs
Fireside Chats
FDR used these to explain the New Deal policies to the American People
Simple and clear language
gained popularity, support for programs, confidence that the government is actually working to help them
Banking Holiday
FDR made the fed go to every bank and inspect them
good bank with healthy business decisions were reopens while banks with Predatory decisions were closed
Increased public trust on banks
Emergency Banking Act
more power to federal government to make sure banks and acting properly
separates money from gold → more flexibility
Bank holiday: four days to check every bank in america
Federal Emergency relief Act (FERA)
- reduce unemployment rates
-jobs will be createdÂ
-relief checks - food and shelter - to familiesÂ
SEC (Securities Act)
- Restore investor trust
- regulate the market and increase transparency
FDIC (Glass-Steagall Banking Act)
-establish a distinction between investment and commercial banksÂ
-regulate federal banksÂ
-ensure the safe use of depositor’s shareholder’s money
CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps)
-establish work sites within national parks and forestÂ
-provide jobs and plant jobs
WPA (Works Progress Administration)
-8 million jobs for americans -> construction
-build schools, roads, and bridges
NIRA (National Industrial Recovery Act)
limiting hours and launching a public works program and b) increasing individuals' purchasing power by establishing minimum wage rates
AAA (Agricultural Adjustment Act)
-To stabilize the agricultural economyÂ
-regulate pricing so that farmers make profits
NLRB (Wagner Act)
-all workers to have certain rights -> workers unionsÂ
- raise wages and better working conditionsÂ
TVA (authority)
problems and improve the quality of life in the Tennessee valley regionÂ
-Establish the largest public power plant company in the USÂ
-Establish a hydroelectric power plant
PWA (Publics Works Administration )
- creating jobs jobs through public infrastructure
Escapism
Americans would still go to movies to try and forget about their financial situation
More interest in sex and sexuality
Movies were about the community
hoboes
people who would move around form place to place to look for jobs
Supreme Court vs. FDR
The Supreme Court would try every single First New Deal Act — overreach of Federal gov power
FDR proposed the Judicary procedures reform Bill → never passed
The Supreme Court gets scared and doesn’t challenge second New deal acts
Critics of Great Depression
Young intellectual’s edevours would come to grips with feeling of disillusionment
Hopeless and Despair
Criticized and escaped it
Eg. Fitzgerald
Huey Long
Critic of the Great Depression
We need to target the wealthy bc they have too much in savings
Wealth distribution
Assasinated
Success of the New deal
Good for prevention
Glass-Steagal Act → good banks
Regulation of the Stock market
Social Security and Relief
failures of the New Deal
Not good at recovery → didn’t end the Great depression
only gave jobs to white males → only specific populations
End of Great Depression
Ended during WW2 → war economy