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Explain the causes of great depression
Explain the causes of great depression
Explain the causes of great depression
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In the book Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s the author, Donald Worster, makes the argument that the Dust Bowl was a mostly a direct result of farmer’s methods and misuse of the fragile plains environment. However, there were many other largely contributing factors to the Dust Bowl. While the farmer’s methods played a role, other factors such as economic decline, unusually high temperatures, an extended drought accompanied by and economic depression, and the resulting wind erosion were all factors that help explain The Dust Bowl. Worster argues that the farmer’s ethos was the main cause of the Dust Bowl, however the causes of the Dust Bowl were mostly geographical. In his introduction Worster says it “came about because the culture The drought caused a lot of unfavorable conditions for farmers in the southwest. In Worster’s book he says “Few of us want to live in the region now. There is too much wind, dirt, flatness, space, barbed wire, drought, uncertainty, hard work…” (Worster 105). The droughts caused many unfavorable condition throughout the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and neighboring sections of Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. Thus, roughly one-third of Texas and Oklahoman farmers left their homes and headed to California in search of migrant work. The droughts during the 1930s are a drastically misrepresented factor of the Dust bowl considering “the 1930s droughts were, in the words of a Weather Bureau scientist, the worst in the climatological history of the country.” (Worster 232) Some of the direct effects of the droughts were that many of the farmers’ crops were damaged by deficient rainfall, high temperatures, and high winds, as well as insect infestations and dust storms that accompanied these conditions. What essentially happened was that the soil lacked the stronger root system of grass as an anchor, so the winds easily picked up the loose topsoil and swirled it into dense dust clouds, called “black blizzards.” The constant dry weather caused crops to fail, leaving the plowed fields exposed to wind erosion. The effects of the drought happened so rapidly and progressively over time that The country at the time was in the deepest and soon to be longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world and this caused years of over-cultivation of wheat, because “during the laissez-faire, expansionist 1920’s the plains were extensively and put to wheat - turned into highly mechanized factory farms that produced highly unprecedented harvests” (Worster 12). ¬The farmer’s actions were prompted by the economic decline America was facing. With the economy in a recession, farmers were looking for a way to make a living and in 1930 wheat crop were becoming very popular. In 1931 the wheat crop was considered a bumper crop with over twelve million bushels of wheat. Wheat was emerging all over the plains. The wheat supply forced the price down from sixty-eight cents/bushel in July 1930 to twenty-five cents/bushel in July 1931. Many farmers went broke and others abandoned their fields, but most decided to stay despite the unfavorable
Many believe the Dust Bowl was caused solely by bad weather, but Egan shows a multitude of factors that led to the catastrophe. In Timothy Egan’s book, The Worst Hard Time, Egan believes that the syndicate and government, overproduction of the land, and drought were all factors that caused the Dust Bowl.
The Dust Bowl was a time period in which many dust storms affected the agriculture and economy of the United States. Before the dust storms and droughts, the land being used by the farmers was already being damaged. Overuse had caused the soil to become useless, and by over-cultivating the land, farmers were no longer able to use the once fertile soil, causing a major impact on the lives of those involved in agriculture.
His book provides an abundance of quality information from economic reports and statistics as well as migration data, to Dust Bowl songs, photography, and poetry of the time. By doing this, Worster is able to evoke the true atmosphere of the times, appealing to a reader’s social and economic curiosities they may have when choosing to read this book. Worster is able to demonstrate parallels between the economic forces and attitudes that led to the Dust Bowl and those that persist today - capitalism being his main cause and concern. While Worster never really supplies a solid solution to this problem, he does suggest that there this something that needs or needed to be done and that government should have intervened in some way with more controls. For example, he mentions, “These capitalist-minded individuals were still permitted the freedom to live where they chose, to own as much land as they liked, to plant whatever they wanted, and to pursue gain without much hindrance,” (152-154). Worster’s passion toward his area of study is apparent in the pages of this book. He is able to offer us a unique perspective as an actual inhabitant of the area affected by the Dust Bowl while still remaining unbiased and bringing about broader perspectives as well.
Sander, Noel. "American Dust Bowl." American Dust Bowl. American University, May 2013. Web. 09 Mar. 2014. . (Sander).
Shindo, Charles J. "The Dust Bowl Myth." The Wilson Quarterly. (Vol. 24). .4 (Autumn 2000): p25. Literature Resource Center. Gale. New York Public Library. 6 Mar. 2011 .
The Dust Bowl was a huge cloud that swept over states in the 1930’s. The clouds were full of dirt/dust and debris. The Dust Bowl was one of the worst things to happen in American History. It was this huge drought that never had any rain for years! The worst part was that so many people died from it. The drought was so big-in fact-that the drought went from northern Texas all the way to Saskatchewan, Canada. The drought hit the states,
The Dust Bowl was a major issue in the 1930's. It was caused by a major drought. It caused many farmers to lose their Cattle. Cattle was harmed or even killed by inhaling the hazardous dust particles. Due to this incident, about 60 percent of the whole population left. Some of the states that were in the Dust Bowl include, Oklahoma, Texas, Kansas, Colorado, and New Mexico. Many people just left because of the fact that it was nearly impossible to live there.
The Dust Bowl is a drought that occurred in the southern plains region of the United States. The Dust swept crossed from Nebraska to Texas. The Dust Bowl occurred in the late 1930’s. The massive dust storms did not begin until 1931. The Dust Bowl was a long-term disaster that impacted people for a long time. The conditions were very scary and last for a while. During the Dust Bowl, serve dust storms would sweep across the great plains. The serve dust storms were often called “Black Blizzards”. The dust storms would also cause the sky to darken for days at a time. The dust would drift like snow and the residents would have to clean it up with a shovel. The worst of the storm occurred in Oklahoma and about three million tons of topsoil were blown off the great plains. Lastly, the dust would work its way through people’s homes and would leave a type of coating on their furniture, food, and skin.
The Dust Bowl was "the darkest moment in the twentieth-century life of the southern plains," (pg. 4) as described by Donald Worster in his book "The Dust Bowl." It was a time of drought, famine, and poverty that existed in the 1930's. It's cause, as Worster presents in a very thorough manner, was a chain of events that was perpetuated by the basic capitalistic society's "need" for expansion and consumption. Considered by some as one of the worst ecological catastrophes in the history of man, Worster argues that the Dust Bowl was created not by nature's work, but by an American culture that was working exactly the way it was planned. In essence, the Dust Bowl was the effect of a society, which deliberately set out to take all it could from the earth while giving next to nothing back.
The dust bowl has a long history for its impact on agriculture. Starting around the early 1930s, the dust storms were becoming visible in the middle region of the United States (Ganzel, 2003). This middle region was known to farmers as the Great Plains, which consisted of several states such as Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and New Mexico (Ganzel, 2003). These middle states were recognized for the farmers who grew wheat. Farmers worked day and night to establish large wheat fields in the Great Plains. The fields of the Great Plains were mainly grown with wheat, for it was the crop that farmers thought will lead them to a wealthy life (Documentary, 2014). Unfortunately, the land of the Great Plains was being overran by too many wheat fields. To make matters worse, farmers did not know what good agricultural techniques were; as a result, the land was tilled, over-plowed and abused (Documentary, 2014). The farmers did not know that the land has its limits, and ignoring it will have a consequence. In this case, the consequence was the dust bowl.
The Dust Bowl was a rough time for farmers in the 1930’s. The Dust Bowl was a drought that had many dust storms involved, which lasted about a decade.
The Dust Bowl brought merciless forces of nature that were harsh on farms everywhere. According to Claudia Reinhardt and Bill Ganzel, “The Hastings Tribune reported that by July 15, 1934, Central Nebraska had experienced more than 20 days with temperature over 100 degrees” (Reinhardt Ganzel). This heat evaporated water from the soil and made it hard to grow plants. As a result, many farmers expended gallons of water on keeping their crops alive (Reinhardt Ganzel). Richard Wormser says that “beginning in
The 1930’s was a time to remember for the regions from Texas to Nebraska. The Dust Bowl intensified the economic impacts of the great Depression and drove much farming families on a desperate migration in search of work and better living conditions. The Dust Bowl was caused by several agricultural and economic problems including federal land policies, changes in regional weather, farm economics and other cultural factors. After the civil war, a series of federal land acts coaxed pioneers westward by incentivizing farming in the Great Plains.
This event, partnered with the Great Depression, changed the way agricultural business was done in America.
One major cause of that Dust Bowl was severe droughts during the 1930’s. The other cause was capitalism. Over-farming and grazing in order to achieve high profits killed of much of the plain’s grassland and when winds approached, nothing was there to hold the devastated soil on the ground.