Title: Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression

The Depression had a calamitous effect on tens of millions of Americans.

• Homes taken away when mortgage payments were not made

• Homeless built shantytowns, sarcastically called “Hoovervilles”

Life savings lost as thousands of banks failed.

• Employers went bankrupt or, to avoid bankruptcy, laid off the majority of workers

• In rural areas, farmers struggled as produce prices dropped more than 50%

To make matters worse, a prolonged drought afflicted the Great Plains

• Region turned into a giant Dust Bowl

• Result: Agrarian unrest – Attacked those who tried

to evict them– Conspired to keep their

farms

• Formed Farmers’ Holiday Association– Organized demonstrations

Hoover made 2 mistakes in addressing the problems of the Great Depression

• Encouraged passage of the Hawley-Smoot Tariff– Raised import duties of foreign goods to 40%

• Expulsion of the Bonus Expeditionary Force– World War I veterans lobbied for early payment of

benefits for their service but bill was defeated– They refused to leave & squatted in empty

government offices – Hoover ordered the Army to expel them; cavalry

attacked them with tear gas

This ensured the loss of Hoover’s re-election & the election of Franklin D.

Roosevelt• Argued for a more

interventionist government• Promised relief payments to

unemployed• Inaugural address: Declared

war on the Depression• “The only thing we have to

fear is fear itself nameless, unreasoning, unjustified fear.”

• Implemented sweeping reform called the New Deal

• Listen to 1933 speech