Intro One of the great mysteries of the 20th century is how the US economy could have gone from a state of unprecedented prosperity in the 1920s to one of unprecedented failure in the 1930s In the 1920s jobs were plentiful the economy was growing and the standard of living was rising ID: 443272
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Slide1
HL
"WHATDUNIT?" The Great Depression MysterySlide2
Intro
One of the great mysteries of the 20th century is how the U.S. economy could have gone from a state of unprecedented prosperity in the 1920s to one of unprecedented failure in the 1930s. In the 1920s jobs were plentiful, the economy was growing, and the standard of living was rising.
By the end of the 1920s:
At least twice as many people owned their own homes as had at the beginning and most of those houses were equipped with electric lights and
flushtoilets
, once regarded as luxuries.
Sixty percent of all households had cars, up from 26% in 1920.
More teens were attending high school: fewer were working full time.
Leading political and economic figures of the day said that the United States appeared to have reached a "permanent plateau of peace and prosperity."Slide3
The Crash
By 1933 at least one-fourth of the U.S. labor force was unemployed and about the same percentage was working shorter hours, which reduced their incomes.
Families were losing their homes and many were going hungry.
Adolescents who should have been in high school were riding around the country in freight cars, looking for work.
Although 1933 was the low point of what came to be called the Great Depression, the unemployment rate never dropped below 14% until 1941.
A decade of hope had been succeeded by a decade of hopelessness.Slide4
What happened?
The United States possessed the same productive resources in the 1930s as it had in the 1920s.
The great factories and the productive machinery that had raised living standards in the 1920s were still present in the 1930s.
Workers still had the same skills and were willing to work just as hard as before, and farmers were producing more food than ever.
So how could life have become so miserable for so many Americans in such a short period of time?Slide5
Whatdunit?
A murder mystery is often called a "whodunit" because we want to know who committed the crime.
The mystery of the Great Depression is a "
whatdunit
"
Our objective is to find out what caused the Great Depression and what made it so long?
This is still an important topic to cover even if you are not a historians or economists because such a depression could happen again and the more information we arm ourselves with, the more likely we will be to avoid a recurrence.Slide6
Clue #1
Get into two groups, one group will research years (1920-1927 & 1928-1935)
As a group fill out information for clue #1.
Keep these questions in mind while researching:
What
was happening to consumer prices during the 1920s? 1930s?
Which
groups would be most negatively affected by the changes in prices you identified?
What
was the trend in the unemployment rate in the 20s? 30s?
Why
was that occurring in the 30s?
What
was happening to spending by the federal government in the 20s? 30s?
What
events might explain government spending patterns in the 20s and 30s?
What
events occurred in the U.S. or the world that would affect peoples' lives directly or indirectly in the 20s? 30s? Explain that impact of some of these events. Slide7
Clue #2
This time as a whole class find information for clue #2:
Labor and employment
Poverty and income
Economy and government
Questions for Clue #2:
How are the overall employment trends related to income?
Why
was farm income depressed throughout the 1920s?
What
caused the trends in government spending during this time? Slide8
Clue #3
Assign each member of the group one of the three articles listed below taken from the Top 25 economic events.
Each
clue sheet contains the article and a series of questions.
Read
the article and answer the questions.
Students
in the group then share the information with each other.
Clue #3 Questions
How did innovation and Ford's leadership in employee relations fuel the economic growth during the 1920s?
What
role did the Federal Reserve System play in this
era?
How
did the stock market crash accelerate the economic slide into the Great Depression?Slide9
Conclusion
Complete independently and turn in for grade. Write question then response, not in essay form.
Questions:
What
conditions in the economy led to the Great Depression?
What is the relationship between increases and decreases in employment, consumer spending, and the money supply?
Trace the ripple effect when workers lose their jobs.
Explain the interdependence of the various parts of a market economy.
Explain the impact of the Federal Reserve's policies in the 20s and 30s on the Great Depression.