The Great Depression
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Hoovervilles: the Shantytowns of the Great Depression by History.Com, Adapted by Newsela Staff on 04.04.17 Word Count 702 Level 830L
Hoovervilles: The Shantytowns of the Great Depression By History.com, adapted by Newsela staff on 04.04.17 Word Count 702 Level 830L A typical shantytown of the Great Depression in the United States, this one located in a city. Photo: WPA The Great Depression was an economic crisis that began in 1929. Many people had invested money in the stock market and when it crashed they lost much of the money they had invested. People stopped spending money and investing. Banks did not have enough money, which led many people to lose their savings. Many Americans lost money, their homes and their jobs. Homeless Americans began to build their own camps on the edges of cities, where they lived in shacks and other crude shelters. These areas were known as shantytowns. As the Depression got worse, many Americans asked the U.S. government for help. When the government failed to provide relief, the people blamed President Herbert Hoover for their poverty. The shantytowns became known as Hoovervilles. In 1932, Hoover lost the presidential election to Franklin Roosevelt. Roosevelt created programs that helped lift the U.S. out of the Depression. By the early 1940s, most remaining Hoovervilles were torn down. This article is available at 5 reading levels at https://newsela.com. 1 The Great Depression sets in The Great Depression was one of the most terrible events of the 1900s, and led to a huge rise in unemployment. By 1933, 1 out of 4 Americans was out of work. Americans looked to the U.S. government for help. -
Feature Article
3 ABOUT WISCONSIN 282 | Wisconsin Blue Book 2019–2020 Menomonie residents celebrated local members of the Wisconsin National Guard who served during the Great War. As Wisconsin soldiers demobilized, policymakers reevaluated the meaning of wartime service—and fiercely debated how the state should recognize veterans’ sacrifices. WHS IMAGE ID 103418 A Hero’s Welcome How the 1919 Wisconsin Legislature overcame divisions to enact innovative veterans legislation following World War I. BY JILLIAN SLAIGHT he Great War seemed strangely distant to Ira Lee Peterson, even as his unit camped mere miles from the front lines in France. Between drills and marches, the twenty-two-year-old Wisconsinite swam in streams, wrote letters home, and slept underneath the stars in apple orchards. TEven in the trenches, the morning of Sunday, June 16, 1918, was “so quiet . that all one could hear was the rats running around bumping into cans and wire.” Peterson sat reading a book until a “whizzing sound” cut through the silence, announcing a bombardment that sent him and his comrades scurrying “quick as gophers” into their dugout.1 After this “baptism with shell fire,” Peterson suffered a succession of horrors: mustard gas inhalation, shrapnel wounds, and a German 283 | Wisconsin Blue Book 2019–2020 COURTESY LINDA PALMER PALMER LINDA COURTESY WILLIAM WESSA, LANGLADE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY HISTORICAL COUNTY LANGLADE WESSA, WILLIAM Before 1914, faith in scientific progress led people to believe that twentieth-century war would be less brutal. In reality, new technologies resulted in unprecedented death and disability. (left) American soldiers suffered the effects of chemical warfare despite training in the use of gas masks. -
American Identity, Humanitarian Experience, and the Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914-1917 Thomas D
University of Connecticut OpenCommons@UConn Doctoral Dissertations University of Connecticut Graduate School 7-21-2014 Rough and Ready Relief: American Identity, Humanitarian Experience, and the Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914-1917 Thomas D. Westerman University of Connecticut, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations Recommended Citation Westerman, Thomas D., "Rough and Ready Relief: American Identity, Humanitarian Experience, and the Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914-1917" (2014). Doctoral Dissertations. 466. https://opencommons.uconn.edu/dissertations/466 Rough and Ready Relief: American Identity, Humanitarian Experience, and the Commission for Relief in Belgium, 1914-1917 Thomas David Westerman, Ph.D. University of Connecticut, 2014 This dissertation examines a group of American men who adopted and adapted notions of American power for humanitarian ends in German-occupied Belgium with the Commission for Relief in Belgium (CRB) during World War I. The CRB, led by Herbert Hoover, controlled the importation of relief goods and provided supervision of the Belgian-led relief distribution. The young, college-educated American men who volunteered for this relief work between 1914 and 1917 constructed an effective and efficient humanitarian space for themselves by drawing not only on the power of their neutral American citizenship, but on their collectively understood American-ness as able, active, yet responsible young men serving abroad, thereby developing an alternative tool—the use of humanitarian aid—for the use and projection of American power in the early twentieth century. Drawing on their letters, diaries, recollections as well as their official reports on their work and the situation in Belgium, this dissertation argues that the early twentieth century formation of what we today understand to be non-state, international humanitarianism was partially established by Americans exercising explicit and implicit national power during the years of American neutrality in World War I. -
Draft-Encampment-Rules-Comments
From: Karyn Blasi To: Samaniego, Frances Cc: Chip Hellar Subject: Belltown: Encampments and Injection Site Date: Thursday, February 09, 2017 9:49:02 AM Importance: High Hello Frances, I was told you are reviewing public feedback regarding encampments and injection sites in Seattle. I am writing to you as a very concerned home owner in Belltown regarding the safety of my family (which includes a husband and two daughters ages 10 and 11). I am requesting that (1) the needle exchange/injection site be placed closer to Harborview or an appropriate hospital and not in Belltown and (2) that trespassers and encampments not be allowed anywhere in Belltown. My family and I have been exposed to incredibly disturbing drug addicted people who have been blocking the sidewalk under the Hwy99 northbound on ramp (photos attached and since I took those, it has gotten much worse, more than 8 tents). I have been contacting a variety of departments for clean up. And while they have responded, the trespassers come back the next day and set up camp again. This must stop. This sidewalk is a main thoroughfare to the Pike Place Market for us and many of our neighbors (and is in my backyard). Having trespassers blocking the sidewalk especially while using drugs is incredibly unsafe for us and our daughters. Thank you for your consideration and doing anything possible to ensure these encampments are removed permanently. Karyn Blasi Hellar From: Andrew Otterness To: Samaniego, Frances Subject: Camp on sidewalk Date: Friday, February 10, 2017 9:21:18 AM Frances: Albeit this very polite and informative reply from Shana at the city's Customer Service desk, my concern is that City of Seattle absolutely must not allow homeless camps on the sidewalks. -
The Bonus Army - March on Washington
Name: edHelper The Bonus Army - March on Washington November 11, 1918 - Armistice Day. The War to End all Wars was over. Weary veterans came home. They left many slain companions behind and brought home a lifetime of bloody memories. The Great War had been one long horror of death and destruction. In the months that followed, soldiers and their families began the process of redefining their lives after the trauma of war. Many servicemen returned to find that their jobs had been taken by others. Besides that, the economic climate in America had shifted. While the soldiers were away sacrificing years of their lives, wages had gone up. Those who had not gone to war were enjoying much bigger paychecks than the veterans had earned in the same jobs before the war. Soldiers' pay and unemployment seemed a bitter reward for all the veterans had given. Disillusioned veterans began to press the government for compensation. In 1924, Congress approved the Soldiers' Bonus Act. The veterans received certificates that would be redeemable in 1945 for a cash value of about $1,000 each. It seemed a distant consolation, but perhaps it was better than nothing. Then came 1929 and the beginning of the Great Depression. The sudden economic crisis jolted everyone, especially the disabled and the widows and children of soldiers killed in Europe. Unemployment was rampant. Many who had given everything for America on the battlefields of the Great War were now trying desperately to keep their families from starving. Naturally, veterans in these dire straits thought of the bonuses promised by the government. -
Texas and the Bonus Expeditionary Army
East Texas Historical Journal Volume 23 Issue 1 Article 7 3-1985 Texas and the Bonus Expeditionary Army Donald W. Whisenhunt Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj Part of the United States History Commons Tell us how this article helped you. Recommended Citation Whisenhunt, Donald W. (1985) "Texas and the Bonus Expeditionary Army," East Texas Historical Journal: Vol. 23 : Iss. 1 , Article 7. Available at: https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/ethj/vol23/iss1/7 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the History at SFA ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in East Texas Historical Journal by an authorized editor of SFA ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. EAST TEXAS HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION 27 TEXAS AND THE BONUS EXPEDITIONARY ARMY by Donald W. Whisenhunt By 1932 the United States was in the midst of the most severe economic depression in its history. For several years, but especially since the Stock Market Crash of 1929, conditions had been getting worse by the month. By the summer of 1932 the situation was so bad that many plans to end the depression were put forward by various groups. Texas suffered from the Great Depression just as much as the rest of the country.' Rising uuemployment, a decline in foreign commerce, and the reduction of farm prices combined to make life a struggle during the 1930s. When plans, no matter how bizarre, were offered as solu tions, many Texans joined the movements. One of the most interesting and one that gathered much support was the veterans bonus issue. -
Historically Speaking the U.S
Historically Speaking The U.S. Army and the Great Depression he news of late has been eerily remi- By Brig. Gen. John S. Brown a government that knows how to deal Tniscent of our slide into the Great U.S. Army retired with a mob.” Depression. Once again, a perfect storm In March 1933, newly elected President combining declining demand, indebtedness, income in- Franklin Delano Roosevelt took a far less confrontational equities, speculative business practices, corporate malfea- approach. Waving aside concerns about deficit spending, sance and hemorrhaging confidence is shaking our eco- he quickly enacted a virtual “alphabet soup” of new federal nomic foundations. Fail-safes such as the FDIC and Social agencies. Most of these were designed to have a direct and Security, and the federal government’s enhanced capabili- immediate impact on working families, and some were ties to react, will undoubtedly mitigate the worst that simply federal job creation programs. The Civil Works Ad- could happen, but most analysts predict we are in for pro- ministration provided jobs to four million Americans, and longed hard times and a difficult recovery. Without overre- the Public Works Administration pumped $3.3 billion (a acting to contemporary circumstances, it might be worth- huge sum at the time) into construction and infrastructure. while to reflect on the ramifications our nation’s greatest Both initiatives drew heavily on the expertise of the Army economic disaster had on our Army. Corps of Engineers. Desperate people do desperate things. During the Great The Civilian Conservation Corps, which ultimately put Depression, waves of layoffs, foreclosures, estate auctions approximately two-and-a-half million young men to work and other bad news precipitated public unrest and often on arduous outdoor projects, involved the Army even more public violence. -
The Independent Review
Volume 20, Number 1 Spring 2010 Unemployment Then and Now by William F. Shughart II* n March of 1933, when Mobilizing America for global war, outfitting Ithe Great Depression had youngsters of the so-called Greatest Generation driven the U.S. economy to with military uniforms, equipping them with M-1 rock bottom, the unemploy- rifles and sending many ment rate stood at 25 per- to die in France’s hedge- cent: One in four Americans rows or the South Pacific’s who had jobs in 1929 were jungles not only lowered queuing on bread lines rather than the overall unemploy- working on assembly lines. ment rate dramatically, The unemployment rate remained but also drew millions of at historically high levels throughout women into the workforce the following decade. De- to help manufacture the spite massive increases armaments that, in some in federal government cases, would maim or kill their fathers, spending under the husbands, and sons. programs of President Why did unemployment persist af- Roosevelt’s New Deal, ter FDR took the oath of office in March 14 percent of the labor 1933 pledging to end Herbert Hoover’s perceived force still had no jobs indifference to the visible economic hardships vis- in 1941. Unemployment ited on hordes of his fellow citizens, epitomized did not fall into single digits until after Pearl by General Douglas MacArthur’s brutal routing Harbor, when millions of men were drafted into of the “Bonus Army” gathered on the mudflats of the armed forces to fight the first axis of evil. Anacostia? Didn’t the alphabet soup of work relief programs the president subsequently launched— * William F. -
Bonus Army Stamp Wes Cowan
Season 6, Episode 5: Bonus Army Stamp Wes Cowan: Our next story revisits the day American soldiers were ordered to expel their brothers in arms from the nation’s capital. World War I… “the war to end all wars”. When it’s over, the European continent is devastated, and more than 320,000 Americans have been killed, wounded, or gassed. To further compensate U.S. veterans, Congress passes a bill giving them bonus pay for every day they served. But there’s a catch… a big catch: they have to wait 21 years to collect. When the Depression hits, tens of thousands of impoverished veterans and their families – the so-called Bonus Army – march on Washington. They want their bonus immediately. Instead, they’re met with tanks and tear gas. Now, Martin Leduc of Hawaii has an artifact that may shed new light on these men and their fate. Martin: I saw this stamp and it reminded me of my grandfather who was a World War I veteran. Wes: I’m Wes Cowan, and I’m meeting Martin to see what he’s found. Martin: Sit down please. Wes: Thanks. Ah, there’s the stamp you wrote about. Great stamp, where’d you get it? Martin: I purchased it at a stamp show in Detroit. The doughboy there brought my grandfather, Charles Meade Runyon, to mind. Wes: Looks like he was a marine in WWI? Martin: Yes sir. He was in the trenches and over the top. He passed away before I was born. I really know very little about the man. -
Homelessness in the News 2013 Media Report
Homelessness in the News 2013 Media Report Education and Advocacy Department Prepared by: Katy Fleury, Education and Advocacy Coordinator [email protected] Homelessness in the News 2013 Media Report Table of Contents Overview ................................................................................................................................................................................ 2-3 Public Policy and Homelessness ................................................................................................................................... 4-9 Criminalization .......................................................................................................................................................... 4-6 Hate Crimes and Discrimination......................................................................................................................... 6-7 Federal Budget Cuts and Funding for Homeless Programs..................................................................... 7-8 Tent Cities and Camping Bans ............................................................................................................................. 8-9 Specific Populations ...................................................................................................................................................... 10-14 Families Experiencing Homelessness.......................................................................................................... 10-11 Unaccompanied Youth ...................................................................................................................................... -
Pdf 4882.Pdf
Table Of Contents DoD contracts with Citibank for travel cards ............................4 ESGR Awards ..........................................................................4 Emergency Medic Simulation ..................................................5 Maj. Gen. Strom Thurmond Award ........................................6 Units Return to States ..............................................................6 NASA LARSS Internship Program ..........................................6 AR Takes Care of Soldier, Family ............................................7 Wear-out Date for Uniform Items..............................................8 Medics Educate Students at Career Fair ................................8 Consultant Teaches Reserve Soldiers about Arab People, Culture ................................................................9 VA Extends Care for Vets to Five Years ................................10 Marriage Retreat ....................................................................10 From Iraq to North Carolina....................................................11 Army Short on Physician Assistants ......................................12 Chaplains Train for PTSD ......................................................12 Recruiter Assist Program in Full Swing ..................................13 Surgeon Pursues Reserve Position........................................13 Boy’s Wish Comes True ........................................................14 Retention Bonuses ................................................................15 -
There's a Skid Row Everywhere, and This Is Just
Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2016 There’s a Skid Row Everywhere, and This is Just the Headquarters: Impacts of Urban Revitalization Policies in the Homeless Community of Skid Row Douglas Mungin Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Mungin, Douglas, "There’s a Skid Row Everywhere, and This is Just the Headquarters: Impacts of Urban Revitalization Policies in the Homeless Community of Skid Row" (2016). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 1693. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/1693 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. THERE’S A SKID ROW EVERYWHERE, AND THIS IS JUST THE HEADQUARTERS: IMPACTS OF URBAN REVITALIZATION POLICIES IN THE HOMELESS COMMUNITY OF SKID ROW A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of Communication Studies by Douglas Mungin B.A., San Francisco State University, 2007 M.A., Louisiana State University, 2012 August 2016 Acknowledgements Thanks for taking this journey with me my ocean and little professor. This project would not be in existence if it were not for the tremendous support and guidance from my advisor Rachel Hall.