CCC 2

0:02So,

0:03when FDR won the election in 1932, he

0:07inherited the Great Depression as the

0:09number one problem

0:11that Americans needed fixed at the time.

0:15Uh the Depression didn't come out of

0:17nowhere, and people weren't as surprised

0:20about it as a lot of people like to say

0:23these days, right? Uh the 1920s had seen

0:26a tremendous economic boom, uh where a

0:30lot of new things like cars and

0:34electronic goods had been sold, and so

0:38new things getting made meant that there

0:41were new purchases being made. So, a lot

0:44of the the economic boom of the '20s was

0:46based on

0:48creating more spenders, right? An

0:50expansion of spending in the American

0:52economy. It was a consumer economy.

0:55But, that boom was already showing some

1:00weaknesses by the mid-1920s. So, the

1:03ability to create new spenders of money

1:07uh was already slowing down by 1925.

1:10There were slowdowns in real estate, uh

1:13slowdowns in construction, and slowdowns

1:16in automobile sales between 1925 and

1:191927. These These three things were the

1:22most important parts of the American

1:23economy at the time, and those slowdowns

1:26pretty well got got ignored. Or if

1:30anybody pointed them out, they got

1:31shouted down because Americans wanted to

1:34believe that the economy was just going

1:37to keep getting better and better

1:39and creating more opportunities for

1:41people who were finishing school and

1:44starting their working lives.

1:46What ultimately undercut a lot of

1:50people's faith

1:52in this continued expansion of of new

1:55spending opportunities was the stock

1:58market crash of 1929.

2:00Right, the stock market crash didn't

2:03actually directly kill the economy, but

2:07what it did was create a lot of concern.

2:10A lot of people said after 1929

2:14that the economy simply couldn't keep

2:16growing. And they worried if it couldn't

2:19keep growing, would it create

2:21opportunity for people to be successful?

2:24The the immediate reaction a lot of

2:25people had was was

2:28basically cautiousness.

2:30A lot of people who had money quit

2:32spending money. They began holding on to

2:34it.

2:35And so when they spent less money,

2:38it caused major industries to begin

2:42cutting down on production, which meant

2:46cuts in hours, cuts in employment,

2:49layoffs.

2:50Um these things tended to create a lot

2:53of concern among Americans. It looked

2:56like, you know, what they were worried

2:58about, the loss of opportunity to make

3:00money was actually happening.

3:03People panicked and began pulling all of

3:06their money out of American banks. They

3:09began taking all their life savings out

3:11and getting it in cash cuz they could

3:13hold on to it. And these bank runs

3:15crippled the banks' ability to help the

3:18economy function as it could. And that

3:20created a cycle downward where like more

3:23layoffs led to more fear, which led to

3:26stricter spending. And so the economy

3:29just sort of cycled downwards and

3:31downwards for like 3 years. So between

3:331929 and 1932,

3:36the Great Depression emerged. Like 32

3:39was the absolute low point. By the time

3:42you get to 1932,

3:44the gross national product of the United

3:46States had decreased by by 50%.

3:51So the opportunity to make money had

3:53dropped by 50%

3:55in the United States.

3:58The president of the time, Herbert

4:00Hoover,

4:01reacted slowly and cautiously. He He

4:04didn't want to break from traditional

4:06economic thought,

4:08which said,

4:10"Depressions happen every once in a

4:13while because the economy is cyclical,

4:16and it's not the government's job to get

4:18involved in this situation, not to

4:21directly intervene and help the economy

4:23up because to some extent economic

4:25downturns are good. They They make

4:27people behave with their money. They

4:29encourage people to save money in the

4:31future. Uh they they encourage business

4:35leaders to be smart about what they're

4:37paying people and who they're hiring.

4:39So, if you lose money during the

4:42depression, it's probably because you

4:44deserve to lose money. So, the the the

4:47answer then is just to sort of ride it

4:49out. Then, eventually you'll hit the

4:51bottom,

4:52uh and Hoover hoped that bottom would

4:54come within a couple of months or a

4:56year,

4:57uh and that it would cycle back up. And

4:59when the economy cycled back up and more

5:01money appeared and more jobs appeared,

5:03things would sort out for the best."

5:06Problem, of course, is that that

5:07downward cycle didn't just take a couple

5:09of months. It took 3 years by the time

5:14the economy got to the bottom, it had

5:16created an insurmountable hole

5:19in unemployment for people to dig

5:23themselves out of.

5:24Uh American unemployment in 1932 reached

5:29a historic high of 25%.

5:31That's That's among grown men. That

5:34doesn't include women who were working,

5:37um and it doesn't include kids who work,

5:40which is pretty common, particularly in

5:41the working classes during these years.

5:44So, 25%, which is the historically

5:46highest unemployment rate,

5:48probably doesn't tell us exactly how bad

5:51things were. Things were probably even

5:53worse than what that number tells us.

5:57In terms of unemployment,

5:59the rates of unemployment were highest

6:03among young working class men, so young

6:06men between about 18 and 25, and also

6:10men of color. So, people who were black,

6:13people who are Hispanic, tended to

6:15suffer higher unemployment than their

6:18white counterparts of the same age.

6:22There are some estimates that suggest

6:25that about 1/3 of the 14 million total

6:30people who were unemployed during 1932

6:34were under the age of 25.

6:38So, this wasn't just about losing jobs.

6:42This was about making it impossible for

6:45young people to start their adult lives,

6:48particularly working class people,

6:51particularly people of color, making it

6:53possible for people who needed to gain

6:56the most,

6:58making it impossible for them to do so

7:00because they're disproportionately

7:02feeling the effects of the depression.

7:06One thing that began to emerge

7:10of this about this, a sort of cultural

7:12shift that happens because of this high

7:14unemployment among younger people,

7:17was that failure was it something that

7:20was deserved anymore? I mean, Americans

7:22had had economic downturns before.

7:25Poverty did exist in the United States

7:27before the Great Depression.

7:30But, typically, if somebody was poor or

7:33unemployed,

7:35the belief was that was an individual

7:37failing. That person was poor because

7:39they were lazy.

7:40That person was poor because they drank

7:44too much. Right? There was something

7:46they had done. It was their personal

7:48fault for being unemployed and not being

7:51able to succeed and thus not being able

7:52to gain respect from other Americans.

7:56What the depression taught a lot of

7:57people was was that just wasn't true.

8:00That there are a lot of people who did

8:02things the way they're supposed to do,

8:04who worked as hard as they could,

8:06and they still couldn't get a job. So,

8:08failure

8:10wasn't just limited to people who

8:12deserved it. Sometimes people who

8:14deserved succeed couldn't succeed. And

8:17that's what raised this bigger

8:19fear among Americans. Americans were

8:22worried that America maybe wasn't a

8:25meritocracy anymore. That the depression

8:28had killed that.

8:29That maybe you could work hard and

8:31deserve to succeed and not succeed.

8:35This

8:37raised fears about the future of

8:39America. Remember, disproportionately

8:41the people are unemployed are under the

8:43age of 25.

8:45So, if you're in that group of people,

8:48what people are saying about you is if

8:50these people can't find jobs, which is

8:53the way people become adults, it's the

8:56way people learn responsibility, it's

8:58the way in American economy up to this

9:00point that people demonstrated their

9:02value and worth to society,

9:05if these people

9:07can't get jobs, how are they going to

9:09learn to be men?

9:11If you can't work, how do you show that

9:13you're a man?

9:14Will these young men

9:17will they reject the American dream?

9:20Will they see America as a broken place

9:22that can't provide them with

9:23opportunity? Will they embrace

9:25dangerous outsider ideas because of

9:27this?

9:29Will it even matter, a lot of Americans

9:31asked, if the economy recovers in a

9:33couple of years and the next generation

9:35of Americans doesn't believe the US can

9:37reward them for playing by the rules.

9:40There are plenty people who had money.

9:42The rich had money.

9:43Right? There were plenty of people who

9:45were criminals that had money.

9:46So,

9:48what's it matter if the economy gets

9:50better, if we create more jobs,

9:53if young people learn

9:56it's more important to be rich, or it's

9:58more important to be a criminal, than it

10:00is to do things the right way.

10:02So,

10:04what the depression did was really cause

10:07a lot of fears about whether or not

10:09meritocracy actually existed in the

10:11United States, and that's what the CCC

10:13was supposed to do. It was supposed to

10:15convince people meritocracy still

10:17mattered.

10:18I'm arguing today that the Civilian

10:20Conservation Corps was established to

10:22secure the next generation's faith in

10:25the government's ability to take on new

10:28roles by guiding American economy so

10:30that it could provide opportunity in the

10:32future.

10:34It wanted to reassure them, the CCC,

10:37that life could get better.

10:39So, FDR and the Democrats hoped that

10:43this government programming would

10:44demonstrate

10:45that their party's efforts

10:48to create a opportunity to succeed in

10:52life

10:53would not only save this generation of

10:56Americans and make them good Americans

10:58in the future, but also, importantly,

11:01create a new generation of Democratic

11:03voters and supporters supporters for

11:05Democratic policies in the 1930s, '40s,

11:08and moving forward. And as you'll see by

11:11the end of the lecture, I'm going to

11:12argue that there were sort of mixed

11:14results in that chance in that

11:16opportunity.