Senior: 11 & 12: Unit 3: The Great Depression in the USA

Newport University Libguides: Primary Sources on the Great Depression

Library of Congress: Primary Sources on The Great Depression and WWII

Sam Houston University: The Great Depression & New Deal: Primary Source Collections

Southern Connecticut University: The Great Depression 1929-1939

History Central: America's Great Depression (1929-1939) Primary Source Documents

• IOP CAM 

The ENTIRE collection of resources provided by the BBC Library can be searched on ONE single, powerful search platform, which retrieves print books, eBooks, database articles and websites. Click HERE for assistance.

1. Causes of the Depression

• Stock Market Crash, 1929
• Long-term Problems in the Economy (see Peter Clements; Norman Lowe)
  • Unequal distribution of wealth
  • Rural poverty
  • The instability of 'get-rich' quick schemes
  • Problems with the banking system
  • The cycle of international debt
  • A slowdown in the economy
  • Overproduction of agricultural products (Bidgood et al.) and falling crop and commodity prices
  • Stock market's dependence on borrowed money
  • Government policies such as high tariffs which reduced international trade and contracted the money supply

2. Daily life During the Depression

Impact of poverty (especially on children), rise of crime, role of cars, electricity, radio and cinema (see Wendy L. Lanier; David E. Kyvig)

3. The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression

Possible Key Question: How did the development of the American Dust Bowl make Americans refugees in their own country?

Possible Key Question: How important was the Dust Bowl issue during the Great Depression, and how effective were New Deal programs in alleviating the problem?

4. The New Deal

Investigate Aims, What ideas and actions were involved (see your textbook), Opposition to it, What it achieved (see Norman Lowe) and How effective it was (your textbook).

Significant programs: The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), and Works Progress Administration (WPA) 

Possible Key Question: In what ways did the New Deal permanently change the federal government's role in the affairs of the United States?

Possible Key Question: Was the New Deal successful in ending the Depression in America, and what was its role in restoring public confidence and creating relief programs for Americans?

Possible Key Question: Eric Rauchway (The Great Depression and the New Deal, Oxford University Press, 2008) states that  'The openly experimental, obviously fallible, always compromised quality of the New Deal programs and their progeny illustrated the imperfect nature of the democracy that they led to'. How can this comment be justified?

Note: See Historiography (i.e. how interpretations of the same events shift with time as a result of many different factors) of New Deal in Bruce Dennett and  Stephen Dixon - later edition)

5. Impact of World War II on the New Deal

• Focus turned to international from domestic interests
• Focus turned from isolation to war
• Implementation of war economy and its impact

(see your textbook)

6. Impact of Historical Figures 

• J. Edgar Hoover (see Dennett & Dixon; Peter Clements)
  • Possible Key Question: Why were President Hoover's attempts to deal with the Great Depression unsuccessful?
• Franklin Delano Roosevelt
  • Policies implemented (eg basic welfare like  Social Security Act).
  • Possible Key Question: Should FDR's leadership during the Great Depression ensure his status as one of America's greatest presidents?
• John Maynard Keynes
  • Possible Key Question: In what ways did Keynesian economic theories spearhead a revolution in economic thinking?
  • Possible Key Question: What was Keynes’ “big idea”, and was it was the right remedy for ending the Great Depression? 

7. Legacy / Results of the Great Depression
(Your textbook is a good starting point)

• The rise of Keynesian economics
• Growth of the Federal government and Federal fiscalism (financial relations between units of governments in a federal government system - deals with the division of governmental functions and financial relations among levels of government)
• Growth of the regulatory state
• Rise of social welfare programs
• Development of unemployment insurance
• Development of old age assistance and Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)
• Development of Social Security
• International trade and finance changed (eg Tariff reductions)

(see Gene Smiley; Linda and Charles George)

 Rainbow's End 

Rainbow's End tells the story of the stock market collapse in a colorful, swift-moving narrative that blends a vivid portrait of the 1920s with an intensely gripping account of Wall Street's greatest catastrophe. The book offers a vibrant picture of a world full of plungers, powerful bankers, corporate titans, millionaire brokers, and buoyantly optimistic stock market bulls. Then, in October 1929, came a "perfect storm"-like convergence of factors that shook Wall Street to its foundations, and was a turning point in history.

 The Stock Market Crash Of 1929 

On October 29, 1929, more than 16 million stock shares were sold at the New York Stock Exchange, and by the end of November investors had lost more than $100 billion in assets. This book looks at the events that helped usher one of the grimmest periods in American history.

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