Council for Economic Education
Econ Ed Link: Where Did All the Money Go? The Great Depression Mystery
Use this lesson plan to have students investigate how the American economy went from boom to bust in the 1920s. Find the resources needed for the lesson plan as well as important discussion questions for individual and class consideration.
Other
Economic History Services: The Fordney Mc Cumber Tariff of 1922
A lengthy explanation of the Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922 and its precursor. Find out about the disagreements between Democrats and Republicans about the necessity of the tariff, how it affected international relations, and how it...
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Farming Problem
The farm crisis began years before the stock market crash and was made worse by the Great Depression. Read about the legislation that was passed to stabilize commodity prices and help farmers stay on their farms.
Digital History
Digital History: Prosperity: Fact or Myth [Pdf]
Find the reasons for the booming economy in the United States in the 1920s. Can the seeds for the Great Depression be seen in the fruit of the economy? [pdf]
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: The Great Depression
Read a brief overview of the causes of the Great Depression. See that there were several reasons which fed on each other to plunge the country into economic chaos.
Wessels Living History Farm
Living History Farm: Farming in the 1930s: Crash!
A multi-page site that focuses on the effects of the Great Depression primarily in rural America in the early days before the election of Franklin Roosevelt. Find videos interviews with those who lived through the trying times.
Digital History
Digital History: The Farmer and the Depression [Pdf]
One of the first laws passed in Franklin Roosevelt's first hundred days was the Agricultural Adjustment Act. Read about how it helped farmers in crisis. and how it was the forerunner of the federal farm program in existence today. [pdf]
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Sinking Deeper and Deeper
Read about the creeping descent into depression in the United States upon the crash of the stock market. Find out how the economy collapsed, and how that affected employment and the lives of millions.
Digital History
Digital History: Why It Happened
How did a country with such a booming economy in the 1920s sink into economic disaster in the 1930s? Prosperity was just an illusion. See the many causes of the Great Depression, and find out how all the signs were missed or disregarded.
US Government Publishing Office
U.s. Government Publishing Office: Golden Age to the Great Depression
Document from the Senate Agricultural Committee explores acts and laws from 1900s through to 1929 that traced Progressivism in the treatment of agriculture in the early part of the century to problems that resulted in the farm crisis at...
Library of Congress
Loc: Prosperity and Thrift: Poverty in the 1920s
Describes the groups of people in the United States that did not prosper in the consumer economy of the 1920s. These included farmers and recent immigrants.
Library of Congress
Loc: Prosperity and Thrift: Mc Nary Haugen Farm Legislation
As part of the encyclopedia in the extensive site, Properity and Thrift, the definition of the McNary-Haugen bills explains why they were proposed as a way to assist the farmers and try to solve the surplus and declining prices.
Library of Congress
Loc: Prosperity and Thrift: Agricultural Credits Act of 1923
Briefly describes the Agricultural Credits Act of 1923 which was an attempt to help the farmers hurt in the agricultural recession.