ECONOMIC BOOM OF THE 20s Roaring Twenties = spending increased which led to a

consumer economy New products became available Widespread availability of credit Installment plan = buy now, pay later (credit) Number of millionaires increased Advertising and chain stores increased

WOMEN’S ROLES CHANGE Women’s fashion became more stylish (Flappers) Skirts and haircuts got shorter Women drank and smoked in public More women in the workplace 19th Amendment was passed in 1920 which granted women suffrage

(the right to vote)

PROBLEMS FOR WOMEN IN THE 1920s Businesses still discriminated against hiring women Not many women doctors or lawyers Women’s wages were still low Politicians worried that women would form too many

special interest groups

HARLEM RENAISSANCE Harlem, NY = cultural center for African-Americans during the 1920s Home of the black literary awakening Home of the black musical and artistic movement Langston Hughes = wrote poems and stories about the difficulties and

joys blacks experienced in American society Duke Ellington = famous jazz piano player and musical composer

HARLEM RENAISSANCE PAINTING

HARLEM RENAISSANCE

CAUSES OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION High tariffs War debt Overproduction in industry and agriculture Too much buying on credit Stock market crash of October 29, 1929

THE STOCK MARKET CRASHES Dow Jones (average of stock prices) reaches an all-time high in 1929 Dow Jones dropped in October 1929 because stock prices soared above

their real value Scared investors sold stocks and prices fell Investors raced to get money out of the market Black Tuesday – October 29, 1929 – 16.4 million stocks were sold and

the market crashed Great Crash led to the Great Depression Losses totaled $30 billion

BROOKLYN DAILY EAGLE STOCK MARKET CRASH (FRONT PAGE)

GREAT DEPRESSION (1920s and 1930s) Widespread unemployment People could not afford to buy consumer items Businesses were unable to pay back bank loans Banks failed People’s savings were wiped out Poverty and homelessness spread People lived in “Hoovervilles” – shantytowns named after President

Hoover

HOOVERVILLE

DUST BOWL Dust storms on the Great Plains Led to severe drought Result = poor soil Farmers lost businesses and farms and could not grow

crops

PRESIDENT HERBERT HOOVER Hoover wanted businesses to remain confident, but he did not believe

the federal government should give direct relief Passed Agricultural Marketing Act to stabilize farm prices -> it failed Government spent money on building roads, parks, and dams (Hoover

Dam) Hawley-Smoot Tariff (1930) – highest import tax in history – it backfired

because Europeans raised their own tariffs

FDR President Franklin Delano Roosevelt – elected in 1932 and served until

1945 “The only thing we need to fear, is fear itself.” – his famous quote

regarding the Great Depression Held “fireside chats” on the radio to boost American morale and

confidence His administration created the New Deal New Deal = program that provided relief and recovery for the Great

Depression

NEW DEAL PROGRAMS Emergency Banking Act (1933) = inspectors determined if banks were

financially healthy; 2/3 were; confidence in banks restored Civil Works Administration (CWA) = federal government gave the

unemployed jobs building roads, bridges, parks, airports (4 million employed)

Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) = 2.5 unmarried men maintained parks, forests, and beaches

NEW DEAL PROGRAMS Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) = hired people to build dams that

provided electricity to poor communities Works Progress Administration (WPA) = created jobs in construction,

research, and the arts; employed more than 8.5 people Social Security Act = federal program that ensured the economic well-

being of children, elderly, disabled, and poor FDR tried to add more justices who supported the New Deal to the

Supreme Court but the plan failed; Congress did not approve