MW

The Great Depression

The Roaring 20s

  • A post-WWI, flu epidemic, Red Scare, saw an attempt to return to normal

    • Increase in consumerism

      • Thanks to Henry Ford and the Assembly Line

    • 19th amendment brings women’s suffrage, flapper girls, first attempts at birth control

    • Great Migration, Harlem Renaissance, Jazz, resurgence of KKK

    • Leisure, baseball, Hollywood

  • Conservative government, pro-business

    • 1920, Harding

      1924, Coolidge

      1928, Hoover

      • all used Mellonian economic theory, BALANCE THE BUDGET

The Great Depression

The New Deal

  • FDR, elected in 1932 for the first time

    • Hoover is blamed for the Depression

      • not his fault, but he never did anything to fix it - his policies were not helpful

    • Depression worsened every year, unemployment at 25%

    • Americans want government intervention

      • no direct payments to individuals, charities began to dry up

      • FDR used Keynesian Economic Theory

        • DEFICIT SPENDING

  • Established relief programs and public works projects

    • Increased workplace safety, decreased child labor

    • Fireside chats

      • builds confidence in the government, increases people support

  • First One Hundred Days

    • Most legislation ever passed to that point

      • Emergency Banking Act, Civilian Conservation Corps, Federal Emergency Relief Admin (direct cash payments to states to distribute), Tennessee Valley Authority,

    • AAA - Agricultural Adjustment Admin

      • to raise prices on crops, farm subsidies

    • NRA - Nat’l Recovery Admin

      • anti-trust legislation, businesses agreed to reasonable wages and hours and end child labor, right to unionize

    • Civil Works Admin, Works Progress Admin, Public Works Admin

      • employed people for infrastructure projects

  • THE SOUTH

    • still agricultural, little industry, lower skilled and wage

      • did not help tenant farmer

    • Fair Labor Standards Act est. minimum wage

  • Appalachia

    • CCC, public works, electricity

  • FDR did face criticism for being too conservative and from businesses

    • became more radical with the 2nd New Deal

      • Social Security financed from payroll

  • Still lack of equal rights under the New Deal

    • Blacks faced higher unemployment, lower wages

    • FDR feared alienating southern whites by curtailing discrimination

    • domestic and farm workers exempted from Social Security

    • women did not really benefit