The Great Depression

The “roaring 20’s”, filled with change and energy. Traditions were being broken and people were turning their backs on “what used to be”. “Enormous causalities [from the war] promoted social mobility, allowing commoners to move into positions previously dominated by aristocrats. Women increasingly gained the right to vote. Young middle-class women, sometimes known as ‘flappers’, began to  flout convention by appearing at nightclubs, smoking, dancing, drinking hard liquor, cutting their hair short, wearing more revealing clothing, and generally expressing a more open sexuality. A new consumerism encouraged those who could to acquire cars, washing machines, vacuum cleaners, electric irons, gas ovens, and other newly available products. Radio and the movies now became vehicle of popular culture, transmitting American jazz to Europe and turning Hollywood starts into international celebrities” (633). And so, this was the age that the consumerism we experience day in and day out was born. “It’s very success generated an individualistic materialism that seemed to conflict with older values of community and spiritual life” (633).

Although the early 20’s seemed to be filled with excitement, this lasted only a short time…the stock market crash in 1929 was the nail in the coffin for many people. “On the day that the American stock market initially crashed (October 24, 1929), eleven Wall Street financiers committed suicide, some jumping out of skyscrapers. Banks closed, and many people lost their life’s savings. Investment dried up, world trade dropped by 62% within a few years, and business contracted when they were unable to sell their products.” (633). “Vacant factories, soup kitchens, bread lines, shantytowns, and beggars came to symbolize the human reality of this economic disaster” (634).

   This picture is in the text, although it is definitely not the first time I’ve seen it. A truly heartbreaking picture, one that can really put the Great Depression into perspective for those of us who didn’t live through it. You can almost hear the growl of her children’s stomachs and you can certainly see the hardship and worry this mother carries in her face. I highly doubt this woman was past the age of 35, yet she looks much older.

President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal was formed to pull the United States out of what seemed to be a never ending downward spiral. It was “a complex tangle of reforms intended to restore pre-Depression prosperity and to prevent future calamities.” (635). “Roosevelt’s efforts permanently altered the relationship among government, the private economy, and individual citizens.” (635). Welfare programs, Social security, relief programs, organization of labor unions, government agencies and public spending for things like highways, bridges and dams were all attempts to stimulate the economy, help the citizens of this country and end the Great Depression.