1930's History

An overview of the 1930's in the US designed for learner with disabilties.

1. 1930’s
October History Unit
EPIC Masco Class
2006

2. Herbert Hoover
Hoover was a Quaker
originally from Iowa and
later Oregon and
California. He was also
a geologist who made
his fortune in mining.
Before he was
president he worked for
the federal government
in helping people own
homes and cleaning up
after a major flood in
1919.
He became president in 1929
and the major issue he faced
was the Great Depression. He
tried hard and passed quite a
few laws to help end the
depression, some helped and
some made things worse.
Some of the things he was
able to do were: better
healthcare for those in the
military, set aside more than 5
million acres of national parks
and forests, prosecuted
gangsters and worked for child
health.

3. The Great Depression
In 1929 the stock market
crashed. Almost all of
the money people had
invested was gone.
From 1930-1933 were a
recession, but in 1933
this turned into an
economic depression.
This means as a country
the USA became very
poor.

4. Some great Depression
Photos
Squatter's Camp, Route 70, Arkansas, October, 1935.
Photographer: Ben Shahn

5. Philipinos cutting lettuce, Salinas, California, 1935. Photographer: Dorothea Lange.
In order to maximize their ability to exploit farm workers, California employers recruited from
China, Japan, the Philippines, Puerto Rico, Mexico, the American south, and Europe.

6. Farmer and sons,
dust storm,
Cimarron County,
Oklahoma, 1936.
Photographer:
Arthur Rothstein.
The drought that
helped cripple
agriculture in the
Great Depression
was the worst in
the climatological
history of the
country. By 1934
it had dessicated
the Great Plains,
from North
Dakota to Texas,
from the
Mississippi River
Valley to the
Rockies. Vast
dust storms
swept the region.

7. The photograph
that has become
known as "Migrant
Mother" is one of a
series of
photographs that
Dorothea Lange
made in February
or March of 1936 in
Nipomo, California.
Lange was
concluding a
month's trip
photographing
migratory farm
labor around the
state for what was
then the
Resettlement
Administration.

8. Relief line waiting for commodities, San
Antonio, Texas. March 1939. Photographer:
Russell Lee

9. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
The second president to sit
during the 1930’s.
His wife was Eleanor
Roosevelt.
He designed the New Deal
to help end the great
depression.
He is the only president to
serve four terms or 16
years. (We now have a two
term or 8 year limit.)
Scholars rank FDR in the
top three presidents the
USA has ever had.

10. The New Deal
FDR wanted men to get back to
work
He made up jobs for the men to
have
FDR started social security so
old people would not die poor if
they worked their whole lives.
FDR made more jobs for
women as teachers, nurses and
social workers as well.
Some of the programs
President Roosevelt created in
"The New Deal" became known
by their abbreviations, such as
the REA (Rural Electrification
Administration), the PWA
(Public Works Administration)
and the FHA (Federal Housing
Administration)

11. Schools in the Thirties
City school were
crowded, noisy and
sometimes dangerous.
People sometimes
bacame sick because
they were not very
clean.
Country schools were
small, cold, and usually
had one teacher for all
grades.

12. The Golden Age of Radio
Radio became the most important kind of entertainment and
information in the 1930’s
There was music and talk radio like today, but there were also
radio series, tv shows but for listening to.

13. Let’s Go to the Movies
The 30s was the beginning
of the “Golden Age of
Hollywood” (1930-1948)
Some of the movies you
may have heard of that
came out in the 30s were:
Tarzan, the Ape Man 1932
Popeye the Sailor 1933
Snow White and the Seven
Dwarves 1937
Gone with the Wind 1939
The Wizard of Oz 1939

14. Shirley Temple
Shirley Temple was a little girl
born in 1928 who became a big
movie star in the 1930s.
It made people happy to see her
sing and dance during the
Depression.

15. The first color movie? Nope.
In 1939 the first widely
known live action (not a
cartoon) movie that was
not black and white was a
big hit
The colorized movie was
called techni-color
This famous movie was
called “The Wizard of Oz”
It starred Judy Garland
as Dorothy
But… this was not really
the first color movie, it
was just the first one to
get tons of attention.

16. 1930s Fashion
The 30s were more
conservative than
the 20s.
This means women
went back to
covering-up their
bodies, no more
short, tight dresses!

17. Hats
Women and men
were both expected
to were hats in the
30s
Here are some 30s
style hats
Would you like to
wear a hat
everytime you go
out?

18. Foods invented in the 30s
Banana nut bread
Peanut butter cookies
Chef’s salad
Reuben sandwich
Vidalia onions
Bisquick
Lipton’s Onion Soup Mix
Fritos
Cobb salad
Hawaiian punch
Sloppy Joe’s
SPAM
Krispie Kreme
Kraft Macaroni and
Cheese

19. War War II
WW2 started in 1939 and ended in 1945
The USA became involved when Japan attack Pearl Harbor in
Hawaii in 1941
During this war Hitler and his Nazi forces put many people to
death: about 6 million Jews, 2 million Serbs and Poles,
200,000-800,000 gypsies, 200,000-300,000 people with
disabilities, and 200,000 or more others
The Americans used two atomic bombs on Japan to help end
the war – this is the only time in history atomic bombs have
been used.
We will learn more next month when we learn about the 1940’s