The Great Depression:

I. Intro
Impact of the Depression:
1) Morally
2) Economically
3) Emotionally

II. What Did it do to people?
A) Work:
B) Savings:
C) Housing:

http://money.cnn.com/2009/03/30/real_estate/February_Hope_Now/

“But in spite of these efforts, the number of foreclosures started in February rose to 243,000 from 217,000 in January. About 87,000 homes were repossessed by banks during February, a 28% jump from the 68,000 foreclosures completed in January. Since the mortgage meltdown hit in July 2007, 1,395,044 homes have been lost.”

D) Eating:

III. How did people deal with it?

A. BY MAKING FEWER PEOPLE:
B. BY HELPING OUT:
C. BY MOVING:
1. Okies
2. African-American migration
3. Mexican-American
D. PSYCHOLOGICALLY:
1. Suicide:
2. Nervous breakdowns:
3. Blaming themselves
4. Blaming others:
a) Hoover and other politicians:
b) business interests:
c) women:
d) Mexican-Americans:
e) blacks:

HERE’S A DEEP QUESTION TO PONDER:
Does poverty cause discrimination, discrimination cause poverty, or is there no relationship between the two?

IV. No Single Great Depression Experience:
1. very wealthy
2. Pre-Depression Poor:
3. Middle-class/young middle class:


V. Why Important?


Woody Guthrie, Dust Bowl Refugee

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_ehYkr0NhU&feature=PlayList&p=329A9E811185D82B&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=11

I'm a dust bowl refugee,
Just a dust bowl refugee,
From that dust bowl to the peach bowl,
Now that peach fuzz is a-killin' me.
'Cross the mountains to the sea,
Come the wife and kids and me.
It's a hot old dusty highway
For a dust bowl refugee.
Hard, it's always been that way
Here today and on our way
Down that mountain, 'cross the desert,
Just a dust bowl refugee.
We are ramblers, so they say,
We are only here today,
Then we travel with the seasons,
We're the dust bowl refugees.
From south land and the drought land,
Come the wife and kids and me,
And this old world is a hard world
For a dust bowl refugee.
Yes, we ramble and we roam
And the highway that's our home,
It's a never-ending highway
For a dust bowl refugee.
Yes, we wander and we work
In your crops and in your fruit,
Like the whirlwinds on the desert
That's the dust bowl refugees.
I'm a dust bowl refugee,
I'm a dust bowl refugee,
And I wonder will I always
Be a dust bowl refugee?

Woody Guthrie in the Daily Worker, c. 1940; reprinted in Joe Klein, Woody Guthrie: A Life, London/Boston, 1988, p. 159.

"Brother, Can You Spare a Dime," (1931)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4F4yT0KAMyo

They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob,
When there was earth to plow, or guns to bear, I was always there right on the job.
They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead,
Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?
Once I built a railroad, I made it run, made it race against time.
Once I built a railroad; now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once I built a tower, up to the sun, brick, and rivet, and lime;
Once I built a tower, now it's done. Brother, can you spare a dime?
Once in khaki suits, gee we looked swell,
Full of that Yankee Doodly Dum,
Half a million boots went slogging through Hell,
And I was the kid with the drum!
Say, don't you remember, they called me Al; it was Al all the time.
Why don't you remember, I'm your pal? Buddy, can you spare a dime?