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Introduction

Hypothesis Title 'The causes and effects of the great depression caused equal suffering to all of the people in Britain during the 1930s' do you agree? Introduction I disagree with the statement because from my previous knowledge, I know that the great depression was caused at the time United Kingdom was recovering from the First World War in additional to this the European countries had a lot of debt to pay for involving on the war. There was major amount of Britain's suffering from the great depression but some Britain it was a good thing. Even thought areas as south of Wales and north of England were depended on old industries which are known as staple industries; new industries were replacing the old once making the staple industries reduce dramatically. Background information The Great Depression began in 1929 when the entire world suffered an enormous drop in output and an unprecedented rise in unemployment. World economic output continued to decline until 1932. The underemployed figures continued to rise, which in turn rendered the government with a lot of families to look deal with. The means test was introduced to reduce the amount of families which also cut the amount given each month however this was not reflected throughout whole country. Source 1 Source 1 is a bar chart showing official statistics of the figures of British people unemployment in millions from the years 1928 to 1937. It peaked in 1933 (2.8million) and by 1937 it was (1.5million) therefore it's declined by 1.3million people. This source is useful in showing unemployment as a cause of the depression but it is not useful as it does not show regional unemployment or how many of this figures are male and how many of them are female also this source is not useful because its to general therefore it does not prove or disapprove the hypothesis so you cant use this source to support the hypothesis title. ...read more.

Middle

This source is a political effect of the depression because it is about a prosperous area and what resources they had for entertainment. Source 8 Source 8 is another extract which is taken from a book making it a secondary source. This source suggests that areas such as Newcastle and Bradford in the North were depressed when compared to southern towns such as Slough and Oxford This source does not specific with details in terms of where economy had improved but does mention regions/towns. It mentions the majority life improved - radios, new shops like marks and Spencers, electricity, houses boomed. This source is very general when you compare it to source 2 it is not useful but does give overall understanding of the divide during this period. This source is true however it does not really have facts to back up its answer. I know that people living in the south of Wales and north of England were on the dole and so this author could not be possibly talking about these regions. This source also disagrees with the hypothesis title because it does show how Britain was gradually improving and that not the whole of Britain was experiencing the Depression. This source is a political/economic effect of the depression because of the amount of people that had to ask for help and amount of food that they had to share out. Conclusion From analyzing the sources I know now that my response to the hypothesis question was right. Not all Britain were affected equally after the depression some of the sources were not very useful as some were useful but it shows which regions were affected and which were not very really affected. Investigation 2 Source 8 Source 8 is an image of the unemployed workers from the town of Jarrow in 1936 this source can be linked to source 2. Looking at source 2 in section 1 it shows Jarrow has the highest rate of people unemployment therefore jarrow were hit hard however this source shows economic impact of that. ...read more.

Conclusion

He tells us that he witnesses a tying family traveling many km in order to find work. He says the young family in the source used newspaper as nappies for the baby and furthermore as the baby was drinking water only from its bottle. From my previous knowledge I know that unemployed men didn't do enough to find work. Therefore this source is reliable because this person experienced this first hand and witnessed the sufferings. Looking back on the sources I can say this source is similar to Con Dawson's (source 7). It is very useful as it shows the certain extents to which people went through to find a job. Source 1 Source 1 is yet another image (primary source) this time of housing in London in 1933. It follows up to Con Dawson statement (source 7) as she was quoting of a more quality house in London. From my previous knowledge I know that these homes are also from London however from the source it looks nothing like that shown in the image in source 3. These houses were made to those who have moved to deprived areas like London. This is classed as social as it hard living standards of most places and those not all housing standards were similar. This source is very reliable as it is a primary source and is useful because of the fact again that not all housing standards were the same. Conclusion From analyzing the sources I was able to prove confidently that life style was not equally affected after the depression in all parts of Britain. Especially in places such as Wales and the north of England because those regions were affected highly by things like unemployment. However some parts of Britain benefited from this as people got out more e.g. Source 7, cinema, dances etc. a lot of the economic has changed. New industries and factories opened therefore many more jobs were possible and this means that the government were no longer obliged to provide benefits to the vast majority of the country. ?? ?? ?? ?? Abdo Haji 11.1 ...read more.

This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE USA 1919-1941 section.