800 words summary On Chapter 24 and 25

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Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Out of Many A History of the American People

Seventh Edition

Chapter

The Great Depression and the New Deal

1929-1940

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Great Depression and the
New Deal 1929-1940

Hard Times
FDR and the First New Deal
Left Turn and the Second New Deal
The New Deal in the South and West
The Limits of Reform
Depression-Era Culture
Conclusion

The Great Depression and the New Deal 1929-1940

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Workers in the GM Fisher body plant in Flint stage a sit-down strike

Workers in the GM Fisher body plant in Flint stage a sit-down strike, taking over the plant on December 30, 1936.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Chapter Focus Questions

What were the causes and consequences of the Great Depression, and what were its consequences?
How did Hoover and Congress respond to the Great Depression?
What was the First New Deal, and how did it differ from the Second New Deal?

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Chapter Focus Questions (cont'd)

How did the New Deal expand the scope of the federal government in the South and West?
How did the Great Depression affect American cultural life during the 1930s?
What were the limits of the New Deal’s reforms, and what legacy did they leave?

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

North America and Flint

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Sit-Down Strike at Flint: Automobile Workers Organize a New Union

Hard hit by the Depression, Flint became a center of CIO activism
In 1937 the union went on strike at General Motors.
The United Auto Workers attempted to take advantage of the Wagner Act and organize a union, but GM resisted them.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Sit-Down Strike at Flint (cont’d)

Strikers seized two GM plants and refused to leave in a “sit down” strike. Supported by the governor, the strikers resisted efforts to eject them.
The community rallied to support the strikers.
GM gave in and recognized the UAW, a move that the other automakers soon followed.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Hard Times

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Dorothea Lange captured the lonely despair of unemployment in this photograph, White Angel Breadline

Dorothea Lange captured the lonely despair of unemployment in White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, 1933. During the 1920s, Lange had specialized in taking portraits of wealthy families, but by 1932, she could no longer stand the contradiction between her portrait business and “what was going on in the street.” She said of this photograph: “There are moments such as these when time stands still and all you can do is hold your breath and hope it will wait for you.”

SOURCE: Dorothea Lange, White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, 1933. Copyright the Dorothea Lange Collection, The Oakland Museum of California, City of Oakland. Gift of Paul S. Taylor.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Hard Times

The Great Depression was the worst economic crisis in American history, one that profoundly affected every area of American life, and left psychic scars which still affect millions of families.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Underlying Weakness of the 1920s Economy

The crash did not cause the depression but revealed the underlying economic weakness.
Industrial growth during the 1920s had not been accompanied by comparable increases in wages or farm income.
The gap between rich and poor widened, as did that between production and consumption.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

An individual investor losing his money as he clings to a bear running down Wall Street

Rollin Kirby’s 1929 cartoon depicts an individual investor losing his money as he clings to a bear running down Wall Street. The bear symbolizes an atmosphere of panic selling and heavy losses, the opposite of a “bull” market in which investor confidence spurs buying and faith in the future.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

TABLE 24.1 Distribution of Total Family Income Among Various Segments of the Population, 1929-44 (in Percentages)

SOURCE: Adapted from U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, Bicentennial Edition (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1975), 301.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Bull Market and the Crash

During the 1920s, stock prices rose rapidly.
Investors were lured by easy-credit policies like buying on margin.
The market peaked in early September 1929, drifted down until late October, and crashed on October 29.
By mid-November, the market had lost half of its value.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Bull Market and the Crash (cont’d)

Buyers on margin faced paying hard cash to the cover the loans they received for purchasing stock that sold well below what they had originally paid.
Few people predicted that a depression would follow.
The stock market crash led manufacturers to decrease spending and lay off workers.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Bull Market and the Crash (cont'd)

Banks, heavily invested in the speculative bubble, began to collapse, intensifying the crisis.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Mass Unemployment

By 1933, nearly one-quarter of the labor force was out of work.
Unemployment took a tremendous personal toll and undermined the traditional authority of the male breadwinner.
Although women found it easier to keep jobs their wages were lower.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Mass Unemployment (cont'd)

Unemployment and economic insecurity scarred the Depression generation.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Isaac Soyer’s Employment Agency, a 1937 oil painting

Isaac Soyer’s Employment Agency, a 1937 oil painting, offered one of the decade’s most sensitive efforts at depicting the anxiety and sense of isolation felt by millions of depression-era job hunters.

SOURCE: Isaac Soyer, Employment Agency, 1937. Oil on canvas, 34 1⁄2" ✕ 45". Whitney Museum of American Art.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Hoover’s Failure

The enormity of the depression overwhelmed traditional sources of relief.
President Hoover vetoed measures to aid the unemployed.
His Reconstruction Finance Corporation failed to restore business confidence.
Efforts to make government credit available saved banks but did not encourage business growth.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Hoover’s Failure (cont'd)

By cutting trade, the Hawley-Smoot Tariff made the international situation worse.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

MAP 24.1 The Election of 1932

Democrats owed their overwhelming victory in 1932 to the popular identification of the depression with the Hoover administration. Roosevelt’s popular vote was about the same as Hoover’s in 1928, and FDR’s Electoral College margin was even greater.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

A Global Crisis and the Election of 1932

The American financial crisis spread to Europe, disrupting international credit and leading to more bank failures.
In 1932, protests erupted throughout the country, from violent strikes to the Bonus Army of veterans’ march on Washington.
The Democrats, led by Franklin D. Roosevelt and his promise of a “New Deal,” won a massive electoral victory.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

FDR and the First New Deal

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

FDR and the First New Deal

The New Deal embodied FDR’s personality and political methods. While being elected to an unprecedented four terms, FDR dominated American politics and life to an unprecedented extent that no later president has matched.
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Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Franklin D. Roosevelt riding to his 1933 Inauguration in the company of a glum Herbert Hoover

This New Yorker magazine cover depicted an ebullient Franklin D. Roosevelt riding to his 1933 inauguration in the company of a glum Herbert Hoover. This drawing typified many mass media images of the day, contrasting the different moods and temperaments of the new president and the defeated incumbent.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

FDR the Man

A privileged New York background
He entered government service, culminating in the 1920 Democratic vice presidential nomination.
His rapid rise in politics came to a halt when he was stricken with polio in 1921.
The experience changed him, allowing him personally to understand struggle and hardship.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

FDR the Man (cont'd)

Returning to politics, he served two terms as governor of New York where he established a reputation as a reformer.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

“The Only Thing We Have to Fear”: Restoring Confidence

First full day: called for a four-day “bank holiday”
One week later: Fireside chat strengthened public faith in his ability to help
Congress passed legislation that strengthened the banking system, helping to avert the immediate banking crisis.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

“The Only Thing We Have to Fear”: Restoring Confidence (cont'd)

Advised by his informal “Brains Trust,” FDR adopted a program of government-business cooperation and central economic planning.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Hundred Days

FDR called a special “hundred days” session of Congress to enact his program to revive industry and agriculture while providing emergency relief.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Hundred Days (cont'd)

Congress pass legislation
Civilian Conservation Corps, Federal Emergency Relief Administration, Public Works Administration, Agricultural Adjustment Administration, Tennessee Valley Authority and National Industrial Recovery Administration among a host of other programs.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Roosevelt’s Critics,
Right and Left

The right: the New Deal was socialistic
The left: too timid including:
Francis Townsend called for providing $200 monthly payments to all persons over 60.
Huey Long, who served as governor and then as senator for Louisiana, called for a “Share Our Wealth” program to redistribute wealth. Long’s assassination in 1936 ended his probable third-party candidacy.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Left Turn and the Second New Deal

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

A recruitment poster represents the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

A recruitment poster represents the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) as much more than simply an emergency relief measure, stressing character building and the opportunity for self-improvement. By the time the CCC expired in 1942, it had become one of the most popular of all the New Deal programs.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Left Turn and the Second New Deal

A conservative Supreme Court that threw out the NRA in Schecter v. United States, and in Butler v. United States invalidated the Agricultural Adjustment Administration.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Left Turn and the Second New Deal (cont'd)

Roosevelt responded by turning left with a new program of social reform to strengthen the national commitment to creating jobs; provide security against old age, unemployment, and illness; and improve housing conditions and cleaning slums.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Second Hundred Days

FDR responded by shifting leftward.
Second New Deal signature programs included the Social Security Act, National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act. The Works Progress Administration invested billions in job creation and the Resettlement Administration sought to reform farming.
Many of these programs continue today.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Labor’s Upsurge: Rise of the CIO

The Wagner Act
Facilitated unions leading to a growth of members to 10.5 million by 1942
Committee for Industrial Organization (CIO), later the Congress of Industrial Organizations,
Organized mass-production workers

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Labor’s Upsurge: Rise of the CIO (cont'd)

Led by John Lewis of the United Mine Workers,
Drew upon communists and other radicals to engage in the dangerous task of building industrial unions.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Labor’s Upsurge: The Rise of the CIO (cont’d)

The success at the Flint GM plant led to victories in other industries.
The reinvigorated labor movement took a place as a key power broker in FDR’s New Deal coalition.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

A violent labor confrontation in front of the Ford Motor Company

Photographer Milton Brooks won the first Pulitzer Prize for photography with this 1941 image for the Detroit News. He captured a violent labor confrontation in front of the Ford Motor Company’s River Rouge plant, as private armed guards, employed by Ford, assault and beat organizers for the United Automobile Workers.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The New Deal Coalition at High Tide

Republican Alf Landon attracted support from all of FDR’s critics on the right.
FDR steered a middle course, attacking “economic royalists” but distancing himself from radicals. He won in another landslide.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The New Deal Coalition at High Tide (cont'd)

His supporters included:
traditional white southern Democrats
big-city political machines
trade unionists
depression-hit farmers
ethnic voters

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The New Deal in the South and West

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Years of Dust. This 1936 poster

Years of Dust. This 1936 poster by the artist and photographer Ben Shahn, served to publicize the work of the Resettlement Administration, which offered aid to destitute farm families hit hard by the Dust Bowl. Shahn’s stark imagery here was typical of the documentary aesthetic associated with Depression-era art and photography.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The New Deal in the South and the West

The New Deal had its greatest impact in the South and the West. Federal farm programs moved Southern agriculture away from sharecropping and tenant farming and toward new patterns of wage labor and agribusiness.
TVA projects introduced electricity to millions of rural Southerners, transforming their lives.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The New Deal in the South and the West (cont’d)

New Deal programs also reshaped the West where federal subsidies and water management became an integral part of life.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Southern Farming and Landholding

In 1930, less than ½ of all southern farmers owned their land; over ¾ of the region’s African-American farmers and nearly ½ of its white farmers were sharecroppers or tenants.
The Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) was able to boost prices by paying farmers to “plow under—take their land out of production.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Southern Farming and Landholding (cont’d)

Many of the subsidies went to large landowners who used the money to buy labor-saving machinery, putting many out of work.
Migration to industrial centers such as Memphis, Chicago, Birmingham, and Detroit

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Southern Farming and Landholding (cont'd)

The Tennessee Valley Authority and the Rural Electrification Administration gave millions of southern households electricity for the first time.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

MAP 24.2 The Dust Bowl, 1935–40

This map shows the extent of the Dust Bowl in the southern Great Plains. Federal programs designed to improve soil conservation, water management, and farming practices could not prevent a mass exodus of hundreds of thousands out of the Great Plains.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

An Environmental Disaster:
The Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl, caused by farmers’ methods that stripped the landscape of its natural vegetation and left nothing behind to hold down the topsoil, swept through parts of the region.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Dust Bowl

Farmers were encouraged to plant soil-enriching crops.
The Soil Conservation Service provided assistance to farmers engaged in conservation work.
The AAA provided subsidies to farmers who reduced their acreage.
Eviction of tenants and sharecroppers led to became a stream of “Okies.”

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Dust Bowl (cont'd)

Responding to rising racial hostility, officials carried out an aggressive deportation campaign against Mexicans and Mexican Americans.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

MAP 24.3 The New Deal and Water

This map illustrates U.S. drainage areas and the major large-scale water projects begun or completed by federal agencies in them during the New Deal. By providing irrigation, cheap power, flood control, and recreation areas, these public works had a historically unprecedented impact on America’s western communities.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Water Policy

New Deal water projects
allowed urban growth, agricultural expansion, and massive irrigation, especially in the West.
These projects promoted flood control and supplied low-cost electricity.
The consequence of these projects was that a few farmers became wealthy and thousands of Mexican workers labored in the fields for very low wages.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Water Policy (cont'd)

New Deal water projects
A general decline in the environment also occurred.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

A New Deal for Indians

John Collier, the new head of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, reformed many harmful practices.
The Indian Reorganization Act restored tribal ownership of land.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs grew more sensitive to Indian cultural freedom and supported efforts to restore tribal rights.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

A New Deal for Indians (cont'd)

Led by Nathan Margold, The Department of the Interior returned to recognizing Indian tribes’ “internal sovereignty’.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Limits of Reform

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Fletcher Martin painted Mine Rescue (1939)

Fletcher Martin painted Mine Rescue (1939) in the Kellogg, Idaho, post office. The work was part of a Treasury Department program that employed unemployed artists to beautify government buildings. The mural was eventually removed under pressure from local citizens who worried that it might upset those who had lost loved ones in mine accidents.

SOURCE: Fletcher Martin (1904–1979), Mine Rescue, 1939, mural study for Kellog, Idaho Post Office; tempera on panel, 15-3⁄4 ✕ 36-1⁄2 in (40.0 ✕ 92.7 cm). Copyright Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC/Art Resource, NY.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Limits of Reform

In his second Inaugural Address, Roosevelt lamented that “I see one third of a nation ill-housed, ill-clad, ill-nourished.” With his stunning electoral victory, the future for further social reform seemed bright. Yet by 1937, the New Deal was in retreat. A rapid political turnaround over the next two years put continuing social reform efforts on the defensive.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Court Packing

FDR became frustrated when the Supreme Court overturned several key New Deal programs.
He asked Congress to allow him to appoint a number of new judges.
New Deal sympathizers feared this would disrupt the constitutional balance and blocked the effort.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Court Packing (cont'd)

In time FDR got a more sympathetic court, but the battle cost him heavily.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Women’s Network

The New Deal brought significant changes for women.
Women who had been engaged in reform work increased their influence.
Eleanor Roosevelt promoted a number of reforms, particularly around issues pertinent to women.
The New Deal saw the first female Cabinet member, Secretary of Labor Frances Perkins, a long-time reformer.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Women’s Network (cont'd)

The New Deal brought significant changes for women.
New Deal agencies opened up spaces for many women, particularly in social welfare programs.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt rides with miners in a flag-decorated car

First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt rides with miners in a flag-decorated car during a visit to the mining town of Bellaire, Ohio, in 1935. Mrs. Roosevelt was more outspoken than the president in championing the rights of labor and African Americans, and she actively used her prestige as First Lady in support of social justice causes.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

A New Deal for Minorities?

The New Deal did not directly combat racism.
NRA codes allowed for lower wages for black workers.
Blacks were often left unprotected by the gaps in New Deal reforms, such as Social Security.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

A New Deal for Minorities? (cont’d)

FDR banned discrimination in WPA projects, leaving African Americans to find jobs. A “Black Cabinet” led by Mary McLeod Bethune advised FDR on black issues and got a number of second-level positions opened up.
By 1936, a majority of black voters supported the Democrats.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

A New Deal for Minorities? (cont'd)

The New Deal did little to help Mexicans and Mexican Americans.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Roosevelt Recession and the Ebbing of the New Deal

1937: FDR had become convinced that the federal deficit had grown too large.
cut spending, creating a severe recession increasing unemployment, weakening support for the New Deal
a minimum wage and funding for public housing—last significant New Deal programs
1938: elections increased Republican strength

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Depression-Era Culture

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Reginald Marsh, Twenty Cent Movie, 1936

Reginald Marsh, Twenty Cent Movie, 1936. Marsh documented the urban landscape of the 1930s with great empathy, capturing the city’s contradictory mix of commercialism, optimism, energy, and degradation. The popularity of Hollywood films and their stars reached new heights during the Great Depression.

SOURCE: Reginald Marsh, Twenty Cent Movie, 1936. Egg tempera on composition board. 40" ✕ 40". Whitney Museum of American Art/Artists Rights Society, New York.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Depression Era Culture

The Depression profoundly affected American culture with often contradictory messages. While radical voices protesting or even calling for revolution grew louder, others nostalgically embrace the rugged individualism of old rural America.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

A New Deal for the Arts

American culture was influenced by the depression.
New Deal’s Federal Project No. 1
provided assistance to artists and intellectuals.
The Federal Writers Project enabled many of the country’s writers to survive and go on to prominence.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

A New Deal for the Arts (cont'd)

The New Deal also funded theatrical performances, sent orchestras out on tour, financed new compositions, and supported new works of art.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Documentary Impulse

A “documentary impulse” led many artists to try to record the extent of human suffering.
Photographers employed by the Farm Security Administration traveled throughout rural areas, recording the faces of despair and resilience.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Documentary Impulse (cont'd)

Novelists like John Steinbeck portrayed the hardships of Okies but affirmed their willingness to persevere.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Waiting for Lefty

Marxist analysis, with its emphasis on class conflict and the failure of capitalism, had a wide influence on the era’s writers.
Alarmed by the rise of fascism, communists tried to appeal to antifascists by forging a “popular front” that helped to spread their influence.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Waiting for Lefty (cont'd)

Those who joined the Abraham Lincoln Brigade during the Spanish Civil War and CIO activists would later pay a heavy price.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Raising Spirits: Film, Radio and the Swing Era

The movies: an enjoyable escape
Hollywood avoided confronting controversial social issues and relied upon indirect comments in gangster films and screwball comedies.
Walt Disney’s cartoons
moral tales stressed following the rules

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Raising Spirits: Film, Radio and the Swing Era (cont'd)

Frank Capra’s
idealized small-town America, solutions in the old-fashioned values of common people

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Film and Radio in the 1930s

In 1930, 40% of American homes had a radio. Ten years later, 90 percent did.
Network radio relied on older forms, vaudeville, and blackface minstrel comedy.
Soap operas dominated daytime radio and featured strong women who gave advice to weak, indecisive friends.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Film and Radio in the 1930s (cont'd)

By the end of the decade network news had become the prime news source for most Americans.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Swing Era

Radio stations and recordings continued to help popularize jazz music.
White performers like Benny Goodman, “the King of Swing,” popularized African-American musical forms for a mass audience, initiating the swing era.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Conclusion

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929–1940

The New Deal proved less radical than conservatives charged, especially in changing the status of minorities or redistributing wealth.
Nonetheless, it left a legacy of government oversight of the economy and established long-lasting trends of government activism.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929–1940 (cont’d)

The Democratic Party remained dominant for the next three decades and continued the New Deal legacy.
There were limits; the New Deal did little to end racial discrimination and more radical programs never got off the ground.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

The Great Depression and the New Deal, 1929–1940 (cont’d)

After 1937, a conservative resurgence insured that there were few new initiatives, but existing programs remained, and with them the role of government in American life.

Out of Many: A History of the American People, Seventh Edition John Mack Faragher • Mari Jo Buhle • Daniel Czitrom • Susan H. Armitage

Chronology