Hello, I'm Mr. Marchin, and thank you for joining me for today's history lesson.

My job today is to help guide you through our history resources in the lesson, and I'm gonna be working to make sure that by the end of our time together, you can securely meet our lesson objective.

Welcome to today's lesson, which is part of our unit on the bust years in the USA, where we're asking ourselves, how did the Great Depression affect the lives of Americans? By the end of today's lesson, you'll be able to assess the significance of Herbert Hoover's response to the Great Depression.

There are five key words which will help us navigate our way through today's lesson.

Those are rugged, retaliation, public works, pension and relief.

Someone may be described as rugged if they are tough and determined.

Retaliation involves harming another person or group after they have acted in a way which hurt you.

Public works involve the construction of roads, bridges, hospitals, and similar things that are paid for by the government.

A pension is money paid to a person once they are elderly and no longer work.

And food, money or services provided to people in need is called relief.

Today's lesson will be split into three parts and we'll begin by focusing on Herbert Hoover and the Great Depression.

Herbert Hoover became President of the USA in January 1929.

By the end of that year, the Great Depression had begun.

Many Americans hoped that President Hoover would provide support for them during the Great Depression.

Herbert Hoover had begun work as a gold miner.

At the age of 21, he worked for 10 hours a day, seven days a week.

By the age of 40, Herbert Hoover had become a self-made millionaire.

Hoover was elected president at USA at age 54.

Hoover argued that government should be based on the idea of rugged individualism, something which he thought his own life demonstrated.

Studied a quote from a speech by Hoover in 1928.

In this speech, Hoover said, "The American system of rugged individualism encourages self-reliance and hard work.

It is because of this that our people have grown to unrivalled greatness." Does this quote from Hoover suggests that he preferred for Americans to look after themselves or for Americans to be looked after by the government? How can you tell? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your thinking on that task.

So we were considering this quote from Herbert Hoover where he talks about rugged individualism.

There are some important elements of this quote, such as where Hoover talks about self-reliance and hard work, and the idea of the USA and its people growing to unrivalled greatness.

Hoover believed that Americans should look after themselves rather than depending on the government for help.

He argued it was the effort and work of individuals which had made the USA rich.

This in essence, was Hoover's idea of rugged individualism.

Americans should look after themselves and that if they did that they could eventually make themselves rich just like he had working up from being a gold miner to a millionaire to eventually president of the USA.

So let's reflect on what we've heard so far.

What did Hoover mean by rugged individualism? Was it that people should be able to rely on the government when they face problems? That people should rely on their own hard work when they face problems, or that people should rely on their communities to help them when they face problems? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was B.

Hoover's idea, rugged individualism, suggested that people should rely on their own hard work when they face problems rather than relying on the government to look after them.

President Hoover's belief in rugged individualism had a major impact on his response to the Great Depression.

In fact, in 1929 and 1930, Hoover took very little action at all to help ordinary Americans suffering from economic hardship.

The president did cut taxes by $130 million, and in theory, this left Americans with more money to spend, which could boost businesses and therefore employment.

However, for the millions of people who had already lost their jobs, income tax cuts offered no help whatsoever.

Furthermore, most of those who were still in work preferred to save their money rather than spending it.

Hoover's government also introduced the Hawley-Smoot tariff in 1930, which placed a higher tax on foreign imports.

The tariff was intended to help American businesses by making foreign imports more expensive, thereby, encouraging US consumers to buy more American-made goods.

However, foreign nations retaliated with their own tariffs leading to a drop in US exports and the failure of even more American businesses.

So let's make sure we have a secure understanding of what we've just heard.

We have a statement on the screen that says, the Hawley-Smoot tariff led more US businesses to fail.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was true, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that European tariffs were introduced on American exports as a retaliation to the Hawley-Smoot tariff.

And the second says that the Hawley-Smoot tariff made American companies pay more tax so the US government had more money to spend.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct justification was A.

European tariffs were introduced on American exports as a retaliation to the Hawley-Smoot tariff.

This made it even harder for American businesses to sell their goods abroad, and that was what led to even more businesses failing.

By 1932, 13 million Americans were unemployed and thousands of businesses had already failed.

In that year, Hoover's government began to take more action to help people.

In January, Hoover set up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, which lend money to businesses and some farms which were in financial trouble.

The reconstruction finance company spent $1.

5 billion in 1932 and $1.

8 billion in 1933.

Hoover also made $300 million available to state governments to spend on public works projects in an attempt to generate new employment.

However, only 30 million of this fund was actually given out, so only 10%.

From the money that was spent, projects like the construction of the Hoover Dam on the Colorado River were able to begin.

An image of the Hoover Dam under construction can be seen on the screen.

Between 1931 and 1936, 21,000 men were employed to build the Hoover Dam.

Nevertheless, many Americans argued that by 1932, Hoover's government had done too little, too late.

So let's quickly check our understanding of what we've just heard.

What did the Reconstruction Finance Corporation do? Was it that it loaned money to struggling businesses? Did it rehoused the homeless in permanent shelters or that it set up public works to create new jobs? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was A, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation loaned money to struggling businesses.

In 1932, it spent $1.

5 billion doing this, and in 1933, that amount of spending increased to $1.

8 billion.

Amongst the Americans who struggled during the Great Depression were thousands of unemployed First World War veterans, people who had fought as soldiers for the USA in World War I.

Veterans were due to be paid a $1,000 war pension or bonus in 1945.

In the summer of 1932, 20,000 veterans marched to Washington DC, the capital of the USA set up a camp and asked the government to pay their pension early as relief whilst they were unemployed.

These men, many of whom were joined by their wives and children became known as the Bonus Army.

However, Hoover argued that some members of the Bonus Army were communists or career criminals and refused to pay their pensions early.

Instead, the president instructed the US army to remove the Bonus Army.

The US Army used tear gas, guns and even tanks in the process of removing the Bonus Army, which led to the deaths of two babies and many more people were injured.

So let's make sure we've really understood what we just heard.

How did Hoover respond to the requests of the Bonus Army? Was it that he agreed to pay their $1,000 pension early? That he doubled their pension, but refused to pay it early? That he refused to pay, but reemployed the men in the military? Or that he refused to pay and used the US Army to remove them? Pause video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was D, President Hoover refused to pay the Bonus Army their pensions early and used the US Army to remove them.

This was a very controversial action, especially because two babies died in the process and many other veterans who previously fought for the USA were injured.

And let's try one more question.

This time we have a statement that reads, President Hoover refused to take any action to help Americans during the Great Depression.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that Hoover used government money to help ordinary Americans and businesses from the beginning of the Great Depression.

The second says that Hoover refused to act at times, and so his actions to help were criticised as too little too late.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause video here and press play when you are ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct justification was B.

President Hoover refused to act at times and some of his actions to help were criticised as too little too late.

So although it wasn't the case that President Hoover did absolutely nothing in response to the Great Depression, many people did suggest that he hadn't done enough.

So we're now ready to put all of our knowledge into practise.

I want you to complete the table.

The table has three columns which are headed: Response, which helped Americans.

Response, which had little effect.

And response, which hurt Americans.

I want you to identify at least one example of Herbert Hoover's responses to the Great Depression, which could be classified in each way.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all your hard work on that task.

So I asked you to identify at least one example of Herbert Hoover's responses to the Great Depression, which could be classified in each of the ways shown on our table.

So your answers may have included: For responses which helped Americans, that 21,000 jobs were created building the Hoover Dam, or that the Reconstruction Finance Company helped businesses.

For responses which had little effect, you may have written tax cuts did not help the unemployed, and that Hoover refused to provide early pensions for the Bonus Army.

For responses which hurt Americans, you may have identified that the Hawley-Smoot tariff led to European retaliation so US exports fell.

It's really well done if you completed your table with some examples that look similar to the ones we've seen just then.

We're now ready to move on to the second part of our lesson for today, where we're going to focus on Hoover's unpopularity.

In 1932, a presidential election took place in the US.

Herbert Hoover, a Republican, ran to be president again.

Hoover was opposed by Franklin D.

Roosevelt, a Democrat.

Franklin D.

Roosevelt won the 1932 presidential election by a landslide.

The result was not even close.

42 out of 48 states supported Roosevelt, just six supported Hoover.

This made it clear just how unpopular President Hoover had become by 1932.

So let's just check our understanding of what we just heard.

We have a statement on the screen.

The result of the 1932 presidential election was close.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to check your answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our answers.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that Roosevelt won by a landslide with the support of 42 out of 48 states.

And the second says that Hoover won by a landslide with the support of 42 out of 48 states.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was A.

Roosevelt won by a landslide with the support of 42 out of 48 states shown just how unpopular President Hoover had become.

Historians can use artefacts, such as the clothing shown in the photo on the screen to investigate attitudes towards Herbert Hoover by 1932.

Study the photo.

What does the clothing suggest was responsible for Hoover's unpopularity? In other words, what was it about the president that people disliked so much? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done for all of your thinking on that small task.

So, if we think about the photo in the article of clothing that we can see in it, one thing that we notice is it draws attention to the Great Depression.

The very first thing it says is, "If you like the depression.

." As there something we need to keep in mind from that language as well.

Is it, it's being ironic? Of course, people wouldn't like the depression because it caused so much hardship for Americans.

The clothing and its message goes on to say, ".

and if you want more, vote for Hoover." So when we think about all of this text together, it actually suggests that President Hoover was responsible for causing the Great Depression 'cause if you like it, then with Hoover, you'll get more of it.

So the source suggests that President Hoover was blamed for the hardship experienced by Americans during the Great Depression and that this in turn made him unpopular.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

How did Hoover's response to the Great Depression affect his appeal to American voters? Did it have no impact on support for Hoover? Did it increase support for Hoover or did it reduce support for Hoover? Pause the video here and press play when you ready to reflect on your response Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was C.

The Great Depression reduced support for President Hoover as many Americans blamed him for the Great Depression and the hardships they experienced during it.

I now want you to study the extract from a newspaper report written during the 1932 election.

The extract says, "I don't know about rugged individuals, our ruined clothes make us look more like ragged individuals." How can the extract help historians understand why Hoover was unpopular? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, so some things that we wanna pick out for this extract the idea of rugged individuals.

Well, we know that was one of Hoover's beliefs.

He believed in rugged individualism that people should look after themselves, that it would make them tougher, and ultimately they would be better off for it.

It then moves on to talking about ruined clothes and people looking like ragged individuals.

So we've got this idea of actually, Americans were being left to live in poverty.

And so when we put those things together, the extract suggests that Hoover had left Americans to become impoverished to fall into poverty by not providing enough government supports.

So this also helps us understand why the president became so unpopular during the Great Depression.

So let's make sure our understanding of what we've just heard is really secure.

I want you to write the missing word from the following sentence.

Many Americans argued that Hoover's commitment to rugged individualism had left them to live in blank.

So what's the missing word? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the missing word was poverty.

Many Americans argued that Hoover's commitment to rugged individualism had left them to live in poverty.

And let's try another question.

Which example best demonstrates the influence of rugged individualism on President Hoover? Is it that he hoped the worst of the Great Depression would've passed by 1930, that the government took little action in 1929 and 1930 to provide support? Or that in 1932, Hoover set up the Reconstruction Finance Corporation? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct answer was B.

Historians can detect the influence of Hoover's belief in rugged individualism through the minimal action that his government took in 1929 and 1930 to support Americans who were suffering during the start of the Great Depression.

So we're now ready to put all of our knowledge and understanding into practise.

I want you to answer the following question.

Why did President Hoover's response to the Great Depression contribute to his defeat in the 1932 presidential election? You should write one paragraph to explain your answer and use your knowledge from this lesson so far to support your answer.

So pause video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So I asked you, why did President Hoover's response to the Great Depression contribute to his defeat in the 1932 presidential election? Your answer may have included: President Hoover's response to the Great Depression contributed to his defeat in the 1932 presidential election as he became very unpopular for not doing enough to help people.

For example, Hoover's belief in rugged individualism meant that the government took little action to provide relief for Americans at the beginning of the Great Depression in 1929 and 1930 when millions lost their jobs.

Some Americans argued that this meant President Hoover had left them to suffer in poverty, and one newspaper even suggested Hoover was responsible for Americans becoming not rugged, but ragged individuals.

So really well done if your own response looks something like that model which we've just seen.

Which means we are now ready to move on to the third and final part of our lesson today, where we are gonna focus on Franklin D Roosevelt's popularity by 1932.

Hoover's defeat in the 1932 election was not just because of his own unpopularity.

Roosevelt also became very popular with American voters.

This was influenced by Roosevelt's response to the Great Depression, and also by his other policies, which he promised during his presidential campaign.

Before running for president, Franklin D.

Roosevelt had been governor of New York state from 1929 to 1932.

As Governor, Roosevelt committed himself to using the powers of the government to help those who were unemployed and suffering during the Great Depression.

The first state-run relief scheme in the USA was set up in New York and Roosevelt spent over $20 million on funding support for the unemployed, houseless and elderly.

In his election campaign for the presidency, Roosevelt promised that he would adopt the same approach he had in New York to help the nation.

Specifically, Roosevelt promised a New Deal for the American people, which would involve greater government action.

One aspect of Roosevelt's New Deal was to provide immediate relief for vulnerable groups like the houseless and elderly.

Roosevelt also promised to increase funding for public works.

He argued that this would create new jobs, boost incomes and lead to new spending, thereby, helping businesses and the wider economy recover.

Roosevelt also promised reforms to prevent another Great Depression from occurring.

So let's check our understanding of what we've just heard.

We have a statement on the screen that says, Roosevelt's plans for responding to the Great Depression we're very similar to Hoovers.

Is that statement true or false? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that that statement was false, but we need to be able to justify our response.

So two justifications have appeared on the screen.

The first says that Roosevelt promised a New Deal for the American people, which would promote government action.

The second says that Roosevelt promised a New Deal for the American people, which would promote more rugged individualism.

So which one of those two justifications is correct? Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to see the right answer.

Okay, well done to everybody who said the correct justification was A.

Roosevelt promised a New Deal for the American people which would promote more government action.

This contrasted the President Hoover's strong belief in rugged individualism.

And let's try another question.

Starting with the earliest, I want you to sort the following steps to explain how Roosevelt planned to help the economy recover.

The steps we have listed are: People have more money to spend.

Increase government funding for public works.

Businesses sell more and can begin to grow again.

And new jobs generated in areas such as construction.

So note of those statements from 1 to 4 to indicate your answer of how Roosevelt planned to help the economy recover.

Pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, so for our four steps, the first part of Roosevelt's plan for economic recovery was to increase government funding for public works.

This would generate new jobs in areas such as construction, and with these new jobs, people would have more money to spend.

Roosevelt believed this would help businesses to sell more, and that they would therefore, be able to grow again and the economy would start to recover from the Great Depression.

So well done if you got all of those steps ordered in the correct way.

Roosevelt also committed himself to a range of policies, which included the repeal of prohibition.

Many Americans had become convinced that prohibition, the ban on making, transporting and selling alcoholic drinks in the USA had failed to meet its aims. In fact, the consumption of alcohol only appeared to have risen.

Many ordinary Americans had not respected the law and there was an increase in organised crime.

Many people considered the repeal of prohibition necessary if these issues were to be solved.

Furthermore, Roosevelt stressed that legalising alcohol again would help create new jobs in the brewing industry.

This was particularly important at a time when national unemployment had risen to 13 million.

So let's reflect on what we've just heard.

Which two of the following reasons made Roosevelt's plans to repeal prohibition popular? Was it that people blame prohibition for increasing crime? People believe repeal would generate more jobs? People believe repeal would reduce alcohol consumption or that people blamed prohibition for causing the Great Depression? Remember, you're looking for two answers to this question.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your responses.

Okay, well done to everybody who said that the correct answers were, people blamed prohibition for increasing crime and people believed repeal would generate more jobs, both of these things made Roosevelt's plans to repeal prohibition increasingly popular with American voters.

So we are now in a good position to put all of our knowledge from today's lesson into practise.

Which of the following was more important for the result of the 1932 election? Was it Hoover's emphasis on rugged individualism or Roosevelt's promise of a New Deal? I want you to write one paragraph to explain your answer.

Ensure that your answer includes some comparison to make it clear why your chosen reason was more important than the other.

So pause the video here and press play when you're ready to reflect on your response.

Okay, well done for all of your effort on that task.

So I asked you, which of the following was more important for the result of the 1932 election? Hoover's emphasis on rugged individualism or Roosevelt's promise of a New Deal? Your answer may have included: Hoover's emphasis on rugged individualism was important for the result of the 1932 election because it made him very unpopular.

Hoover's emphasis meant that he took little action in 1929 and 1930 to help struggling Americans.

Hoover even used the army against the Bonus Army rather than pay their pensions early.

As a result, many Americans who became unemployed or houseless, blamed Hoover for not doing enough to help them.

This was more important than Roosevelt's promises as the Democrats often use this anger at Hoover to encourage voters to support Roosevelt.

So wild done if your response looked something like that model there.

But alternatively, your answer may have included: Roosevelt's promise of a New Deal was important for the result of the 1932 election because it made him very popular.

Roosevelt promised relief for groups like the houseless and to set up more public work schemes which could generate new jobs.

As a result, many Americans became hopeful that under Roosevelt, an active government would protect them from hardship and help restart economic growth.

If Roosevelt had only benefited from Hoover's unpopularity rather than being popular himself, it is unlikely that he would've won a landslide supported by 42 out of 48 states.

So again, if your model looks something like that alternative, really well done.

And so we've reached the end of today's lesson, which puts us in a good position to summarise our learning.

We've seen that President Hoover believed in the idea of rugged individualism.

Hoover made some attempts to help Americans during the Great Depression, but many people thought that these efforts were not enough to help them.

President Hoover became very unpopular and lost the 1932 election in a landslide for Franklin D.

Roosevelt.

And Roosevelt promised a New Deal for the American people which helped him appeal to millions of voters.

So really well done for your effort throughout today's lesson.

It's been a pleasure to help guide you through our resources, and I look forward to seeing you again in future as we think further about the Great Depression and its impact on the lives of the American people.