Introduction: students asked to reflect on photographs [projected on white board] of the time; quintessential images that are evoked when people think of the 1930s Depression Era.
-Concepts to elicit/emphasize: photos communicate human scale of disaster, Depression was worldwide - 3rd image is of schoolchildren on a soup line in Sydney in 1934, questioning what are necessities of life.
-Contemporary connection: Q. "where is there hunger in the world today?" (Syrian crisis, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia).
-Indicate that first photograph has been colored and original was in B&W. Q.'s: What effect does this have? Does it seem more "real" than the others? Does this change the historical record?
-Concepts to elicit/emphasize: photos communicate human scale of disaster, Depression was worldwide - 3rd image is of schoolchildren on a soup line in Sydney in 1934, questioning what are necessities of life.
-Contemporary connection: Q. "where is there hunger in the world today?" (Syrian crisis, Sub-Saharan Africa, Southern Asia).
-Indicate that first photograph has been colored and original was in B&W. Q.'s: What effect does this have? Does it seem more "real" than the others? Does this change the historical record?
[Student read aloud]
"I couldn't imagine such financial disaster touching my small world; it surely concerned only the rich. But by the first week of November...I was without a job. All that next week I searched for any kind of work that would prevent my leaving school. Again it was, 'We're firing, not hiring.'...I went to school and cleaned out my locker, knowing it was impossible to stay on. A piercing chill was in the air as I walked back to the rooming house." - Gordon Parks, A Choice of Weapons
Short lecture including review of germane information from prior week:
We've learned that the 1920s in the United States was a time of general prosperity, when the economy following the end of World War I was growing and an increasing number of people, especially in the urban centers, were able to buy new products and enjoy a certain level of comfort. However, was we also went over last week, many people purchased these new consumer goods on credit. When your parents purchase something on a credit card, they are not paying the entire cost of something, but a portion of it, plus something extra which is determined by the interest rate. If you buy something that is $100 and your monthly credit card interest is 5%, how much extra in interest do you have to pay each month? When the government sets the main interest rate very low, and businesses follow, they make credit easily available at that time for people to purchase more things. Those interest rates can change however, and the payments people have to make each month can increase or decrease depending on how healthy, quote-unquote, the larger economy is determined to be. I put quotes around 'healthy' because the economy is not a living thing, but an abstraction, and an abstraction is an idea that can be based on many real world things but is not itself able to be held or simply described.
After the war, many industries that did very well when military expansion was important started to do poorly when the country was at peace. Mining and lumbering companies were not as successful as they had been, and even other things like car sales and home construction started to decline. These different industries and their profits are real measures that are used to determine the health of the economy. Farming was a very important indicator, or measure, of economic health. In the 1930s farmers had a very difficult time once demand for their crops fell after the war. The amount of food they could grow was always going up, but that meant that prices went down so it was harder to make a profit, which means more money is made than what they had already [invested] put in. This condition was called overproduction. This term does not mean that there weren't enough people who wanted to eat the food, but instead that it would not profitable enough to sell at the lower prices. Ask if there are any questions/reflections.
Establish date from source caption. Q. What do you see in this cartoon? What is the setting? What is the farmer falling over? What is happening to the prices of both cotton and wheat?
Student project due at end of week
One of the ways to learn about history is to conduct an interview with a grandparent or elder. You will all conduct one interview with someone who is older than 70, and either record your interview on your phone or write it down both your questions and their answers in your notebook as they talk. To give you an idea of the kinds of stories told about the Great Depression, here is one of the interviews gathered by the Federal Writers' Project during the Depression years of 1936-1940 with a woman who lived in Georgia:
Two volunteers to read aloud
“In 1917 when the United States became involved in the World War, salaries were greatly increased and by strict economy we were able to save enough money to make a down-payment on a 7 home of our own. It was not long before we had paid quite a nice amount on it. Unfortunately, when peace was declared the market broke, salaries were cut, and we were dealt quite a hard blow.
“Several years previously, believing business would warrant such a venture, Joe had
opened a business of his own. He carried practically the same line of merchandise as did
the firms for whom he had worked, excepting of course the undertaking business. He sold
carriages, buggies, wagons, fertilizers, and some commodities. He extended credit to the
farmers; then when the depression came, he was unable to collect and consequently we
lost our business and our home.
“The boll weevil also got in its deadly work. They practically destroyed the cotton and
damaged other crops as well. Prices dropped so low that what little the farmers were able
to salvage brought almost nothing and consequently they had no money with which to
meet their obligations. Sweet potatoes sold as low as 40 cents per bushel; corn as low as
50 cents, and other products sold accordingly.
“Joe and I educated our children the best we could. We have given all of them a grammar
school education and the equivalent of two years in high school.
“After losing our business and our home we moved to Augusta and made a new start. The
children secured work and it wasn't long before Joe was able to pick up temporary work. I
took in sewing and helped all I could. I have kept it up and at the present time I am in the
dressmaking business with a friend on a 50-50 basis.
“Shortly after we came here my husband worked for the city, and then he worked for the
Georgia Power Company. For the next several years Joe worked for cotton oil mills, one
of which was located at Raleigh, North Carolina. While at work in the latter place a huller
machine blew up and he was hurt badly.
“The company paid him his entire salary for the six months that he was laid up. He tried
to work again but after two or three days he had to give up and go back home. Just as he
had recuperated sufficiently to return to work the mill shut down and he was again without
work.
“Joe has always been blessed with undaunted courage and strong determination and he
again sought employment at the Southern Cotton Oil Company in Augusta. We moved
back here and he worked until the season was over. For the past five years he has worked
at the University Hospital.
“I don't think there can be any doubt but that the World War caused the depression. When
our country became involved with Europe and our boys went to France, prices soared and
salaries went up by leaps and bounds. There were so many positions left open by the boys
who went ‘Over There,’ that there actually seemed to be competition between the heads of
businesses as to which one would get the first chance to employ a man and they were not
stingy with salaries either.
“People became excited and restless, bought extravagantly and 9 lived entirely beyond
their means. Many borrowed money from the banks to buy luxuries they couldn't afford.
When things began to level themselves after the close of the war - a depression was
inevitable."
Source: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/mss/wpalh1/13/1306/13060412/13060412.pdf
Student project due at end of week
One of the ways to learn about history is to conduct an interview with a grandparent or elder. You will all conduct one interview with someone who is older than 70, and either record your interview on your phone or write it down both your questions and their answers in your notebook as they talk. To give you an idea of the kinds of stories told about the Great Depression, here is one of the interviews gathered by the Federal Writers' Project during the Depression years of 1936-1940 with a woman who lived in Georgia:
Two volunteers to read aloud
“In 1917 when the United States became involved in the World War, salaries were greatly increased and by strict economy we were able to save enough money to make a down-payment on a 7 home of our own. It was not long before we had paid quite a nice amount on it. Unfortunately, when peace was declared the market broke, salaries were cut, and we were dealt quite a hard blow.
“Several years previously, believing business would warrant such a venture, Joe had
opened a business of his own. He carried practically the same line of merchandise as did
the firms for whom he had worked, excepting of course the undertaking business. He sold
carriages, buggies, wagons, fertilizers, and some commodities. He extended credit to the
farmers; then when the depression came, he was unable to collect and consequently we
lost our business and our home.
“The boll weevil also got in its deadly work. They practically destroyed the cotton and
damaged other crops as well. Prices dropped so low that what little the farmers were able
to salvage brought almost nothing and consequently they had no money with which to
meet their obligations. Sweet potatoes sold as low as 40 cents per bushel; corn as low as
50 cents, and other products sold accordingly.
“Joe and I educated our children the best we could. We have given all of them a grammar
school education and the equivalent of two years in high school.
“After losing our business and our home we moved to Augusta and made a new start. The
children secured work and it wasn't long before Joe was able to pick up temporary work. I
took in sewing and helped all I could. I have kept it up and at the present time I am in the
dressmaking business with a friend on a 50-50 basis.
“Shortly after we came here my husband worked for the city, and then he worked for the
Georgia Power Company. For the next several years Joe worked for cotton oil mills, one
of which was located at Raleigh, North Carolina. While at work in the latter place a huller
machine blew up and he was hurt badly.
“The company paid him his entire salary for the six months that he was laid up. He tried
to work again but after two or three days he had to give up and go back home. Just as he
had recuperated sufficiently to return to work the mill shut down and he was again without
work.
“Joe has always been blessed with undaunted courage and strong determination and he
again sought employment at the Southern Cotton Oil Company in Augusta. We moved
back here and he worked until the season was over. For the past five years he has worked
at the University Hospital.
“I don't think there can be any doubt but that the World War caused the depression. When
our country became involved with Europe and our boys went to France, prices soared and
salaries went up by leaps and bounds. There were so many positions left open by the boys
who went ‘Over There,’ that there actually seemed to be competition between the heads of
businesses as to which one would get the first chance to employ a man and they were not
stingy with salaries either.
“People became excited and restless, bought extravagantly and 9 lived entirely beyond
their means. Many borrowed money from the banks to buy luxuries they couldn't afford.
When things began to level themselves after the close of the war - a depression was
inevitable."
Source: http://lcweb2.loc.gov/mss/wpalh1/13/1306/13060412/13060412.pdf
Short lecture
During the 1920s, the gap between the wealthy and the rest of the country increased very sharply. Over 70% of the whole country earned less than what was considered a decent standard of living. Barely half the homes in the United States had electric lights or a furnace for heat, and it is estimated that most people could only buy one new outfit a year.
On the other end of the spectrum, which is to say the opposite condition or the 'other side of the tracks,' those who were wealthy enough to afford to put money in the stock market did so without concern for warning signs that some people could see before the crash of October 29th, 1929. Many said that the price of stocks, or fractions of ownership of a company, would keep rising and rising. Throughout most of the 1920s they did. Buying on margin became away to enter the stock market by using credit, in a similar way that people would purchase clothes or cars or televisions by paying little by little. However, this sort of speculation, which is a way to make a quick and risky bet that things would go your way, was very unstable and could not last.
What is going on in this image from the time of the Great Depression? Were the 1920s a time when the market / roller coaster was going up? What happens when it goes down?
HOMEWORK, both A & B:
A. Re-read the transcript ( http://lcweb2.loc.gov/mss/wpalh1/13/1306/13060412/13060412.pdf ) of the interview with the woman who talked about her experience before and during the Depression. Think of questions that you will be asking the person older than 70 that you will choose to interview. These questions can get you started. Be sure to come up with two of your own!
B. Watch this 10 minute video on the Wall Street Stock Market Crash of 1929. If you can not access this at home, see me before class or during lunch and we will view it together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJpLMvgUXe8
HOMEWORK, both A & B:
A. Re-read the transcript ( http://lcweb2.loc.gov/mss/wpalh1/13/1306/13060412/13060412.pdf ) of the interview with the woman who talked about her experience before and during the Depression. Think of questions that you will be asking the person older than 70 that you will choose to interview. These questions can get you started. Be sure to come up with two of your own!
- What is your name?
- What is your date of birth?
- What is your place of birth?
- What is your ethnicity?
- Where have you lived?
- What language(s) do you speak?
- What presidents (or national leaders) do you recall?
- What were some of the important news (current) events that you remember? How did you receive the news?
- Did you live during the Depression? If so how did it affect you? *required*
- What jobs did you have throughout your life?
- When you were growing up, what were the rules of your house? Did you rebel in any ways?
B. Watch this 10 minute video on the Wall Street Stock Market Crash of 1929. If you can not access this at home, see me before class or during lunch and we will view it together.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJpLMvgUXe8