3.2.1 Summary

Why didn't anyone make changes to the economy before the stock market crashed?








- Rape of Nanking- tens of thousands of captured soldiers and civilians were killed, raped and tortured by the Japanese soldiers

- Marco Polo incident- While Japanese was occupying Marco Polo bridge. One of the soldiers went missing. Japanese demanded to search the compound but the Chinese refused, so this gave Japan a reason to go to war with China. Eventually they find out, that the soldier just went to the rest room.






- Albert Einstein came up with the theory of relativity. Theory of relativity is Einstein's ideas about the interrelationships between time and space and between energy and matter

- Existentialism- existentialist believed that there is no universal meaning to life. Each person gives his or her own meaning to life through choice made and actions taken.

- The 1936 summer Olympics was held in Berlin, Nazi Germany Capitol. Hitler built a new 30 million dollar stadium for the games. He took down all anti-Semitic signs in Berlin, to hide his persecution of the Jews from the world

Spotlight On

New Deal
The New Deal was a series of economic programs passed by Congress during the first term of Franklin D. Roosevelt, 32nd President of the United States. Few new programs were enacted after 1936. The programs were responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call the 3 Rs: relief, recovery and reform. That is, relief for the unemployed and poor, recovery of the economy to normal levels, and reform of the financial system to prevent a repeat depression. Roosevelt and his advisers believed that government spending would create jobs and start a recovery. Even with the New Deal, recovery was slow

Unites States Events (1919-1939)

John Dellinger killed (1934)
American bank robber in the Midwest during the early 1930s. He was considered to be a dangerous criminal who was involved in the deaths of several police officers, robbed at least two dozen banks and four police stations,and escaped from jail twice. The exploits of Dillinger and his gang, along with those of other criminals of the Great Depression such as Bonnie and Clyde and Ma Barker, dominated the attention of the American press and its readers during what is sometimes referred to as the public enemy era
Connection across time- It was much easier to rob a bank, and escape from jail in John Dellinger's life time. The technology we have now makes it nearly impossible to rob a bank and get away with it.


Stock Market Crashes (October 29, 1929)
The Stock Market Crash of 1929 devastated the economy and was a key factor in beginning the Great Depression. On the morning of Thursday, October 24, 1929, stock prices plummeted. Many of people were selling their stocks. Margin calls were sent out. The ticker was so overwhelmed that it quickly fell behind. A crowd gathered outside of the New York Stock Exchange on Wall Street, stunned at the downturn. Billions of dollars simply vanished. People could not pay the money they owed on marggin purchases. Stocks they had brought at high prices were now worthless. Unemployment began to rise.
Connection across time- The stock prices dropping in 1929 compares to are stock market today. Even today stock prices rise and fall. We are also experienceing a rise in unemployment.

Names in the News (1919-1939)

Bonnie and Clyde
During the Great Depression Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow went on their two-year crime spree (1932-1934). The general attitude in the country was against government and Bonnie and Clyde used that to their advantage. Bonnie and Clyde was far from their portrayal in the newspapers. Bonnie and Clyde were responsible for 13 murders, some of whom were innocent people killed during one of Clyde's many bungled robberies. Bonnie and Clyde lived out of their car, stealing new cars as often as possible, and they lived off the money they stole from small grocery stores and gas stations. Sometimes Bonnie and Clyde would rob a bank, but they never managed to walk away with very much money. Bonnie and Clyde died in a hail of bullets from a police ambush.

Giuseppe Zangara (Assassination attempt on FDR)
Italian immigrant had emptied his .32 caliber pistol while aiming the best he could at FDR while standing on a wobbly chair about 25 feet away. Although none of the shots hit FDR, Chicago's Mayor Anton Cermak was mortally hit in the stomach and four others received minor injuries. Zangara wanted to kill FDR because he blamed FDR and all rich people and capitalists for his chronic stomach pain. On March 20, 1933, Zangara died in the electric chair.

Adolf Hitler
Ten years before Hitler came to power in Germany, he tried to take it by force. On the night of November 8, 1923, Adolf Hitler and some of his confederates stormed into a beer hall and attempted to force the triumvirate, whom were three men that governed Bavaria, to join him in a national revolution. The men of the tiumvirate disagreed. Hitler was arrested three days later and after a short trial. Hitler was sentenced to five years in prison. He served less then nine months.

Art pieces 1919-1939

Mona Lisa, Marcel Duchamp(1919)
During the Dada movement Marcel Duchamp painted the Mona Lisa with a mustache. The Dada movement evolved as a protest against society and aimed to show mainstream values as meaningless in the context of World War 1


Max Ernst, Celebes(1921)
This art peice was inspired by the Dada movement. Max Ernst was considered to be one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement. Dadaist works were meant to be meaningless and absurd.




The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali (1931)
This surrealist work shows watches and clocks melting away in a desert. Surrealism was an art movement that sought to link the world of dreams with real life. Surrealism was popular in this time period. This movement followed the Dada movement


Girl's Back (1926) by Salvador Dali
Salvador Dali is showing how the women's back looked in this time period. Women no longer wore restrictive clothing or hairstyles. Like in this art piece, women in this time period showed much more skin.

Introduction to Chapter 15

I'm blogging about chapter 15. The title of my blog is Chapter 15 Years of Crisis. The chapter takes place from 1919 to 1939. It begins with an age of uncertainty which was triggered by the war. This chapter is called Years of Crisis because during this chapter, the world went through many crisis which includes the Great Depression. During the Great Depression the stock market crashed and the whole world felt it. The depression caused democracies to fall and new leaders such as Adolf Hitler and Mussolini to rise. After reading this chapter, I hope to learn and understand more about the depression and how the dictators took over.