When a person hears the words, “The Great Depression” they tend to think of one of the worst economic times in the United States. The Dust Bowl also contributed to this. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl (also known as the Dirty Thirties) hit the United States like a truck. The Great Depression and the Dust Bowl affected many Americans in many different ways. American people also faced challenges, and they reacted in the most heartfelt and inspiring ways. The government saw the hardships people were facing and tried to help in the best way they could.
The Great Depression was evoked by what many thought was the stock market crash of 1929. However, that was not the case, the stock market crash on October, 29 1929 was just the
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beginning of the chaos. “By 1929, commercial bankers were in the unusual position of loaning more money for stock market and real estate investments than for commercial ventures.” (Green). By 1930 most banks failed and credit froze, this caused massive unemployment. People blamed the banks for the unemployment because there was not enough money to pay the workers, causing employees to be fired (Crash Course). The stock market crash was not the only event that worked our nation into this great depression, reduction in purchasing across the board. The Great Depression affected many American citizens in many different ways. Once the banks were not enough, unemployment because a task for many. By 1932, unemployment was at 25% (Crash Course). Unemployment was a huge factor with the struggling of American people, but the Dust Bowl made it ten times worse. All in all, the Great Depression affected many people in different ways, but it made the nation what it is today. The Dust Bowl was generated from farmers over farming the ground, ripping up the grasses causing the dirt to unsettle, it lasted from 1931 to 1939. By the late 1800’s, the Southern Plains changed. Miles of grasslands were turned into wheat farms. The Dust Bowl affected Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas. Catherine Hattrup, age 9, lived in Hodgeman County, Kansas, and her family did not leave once the Dust Bowl hit (Tarshis 5). It happened on Sunday, April 14, 1935. The day started of normal for Catherine and her family until they saw the black storm heading right toward them. The 65 mile winds mixed with the grainy dust made the sky brown and dusty, it stretched 200 miles and over 8,000 feet high. “People caught in a dust storm would choke as dust rushed up their noses.” (Tarshis 8). Both adults and children had to wear goggles and homemade masks because of the thick dust. Americans has to put vaseline on their nostrils because of the thick dust. Cars could not see the road, resulting in crashes (Henderson). The dust not only affected people, it also affected the animals. Birds could not fly and no one had drinking water because of the drought.To sum up, the Dust Bowl affect many lives, and not just people. The society reacted in the most heartfelt and inspiring ways. Women, men, and children all contributed to help the nation all they could. Some people left the land, some stayed to save their farms. Like Catherine and her family, most stayed behind to help and same the things they love and what was close to them. Fay Blake as a teenager grew up in New York, but once the Depression and the Dust Bowl hit, she wanted to move to California, and it was her dream. Fay Blake had always pictured California like a place where you would not have to work for what you have (Blake). In New York, citizens had to hunt and work for food, because of the horrible economic times. Blake related to most of the movies of the 1930’s because people were unemployed and she knew what living in that kind of life feels like (Blake). All people during the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl faced one hardship by one time or another. Herbert Hoover, the nation's 31st president, tried to help in any way possible.
Talking about what the government did to help was a touchy subject because American citizens thought the government drew them into the Depression. During the first year of Hoover’s presidency, the economy was booming. Most people thought the economy was fine until Hoover came in. He was a very intelligent war vet who helped stabilize the economies. He also begged shops to rehire/ open the factories for workers, but they could not because they could not pay the employees. Hooverville was a “town” where the homeless lived and tried to help eachother out. Hoover asked Americans to give to charity, but even with the wealthy could not close the huge gap. In 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt beat Hoover in the election with 472 electoral votes (88.9% of the votes). Americans thought with the new president everything would start to look up. Roosevelt in his first 100 days passed “16 major pieces of legislation” (also known as The New Deal). The New Deal was an “attempt to relieve social and economic suffering of Americans” ). Roosevelt also tried to inform people as much as he could with speeches, and that made Americans feel better about their situations. Roosevelt, in his speeches says inspiring things such as, “The Nation asks for action, and action now.” (Roosevelt). Both presidents tried to help in anyway possible, but it depends on who you ask on rather it really helped or
not. To sum up, the Great Depression and Dust Bowl was a horrible thing to happen to the United States, but in the end it made us stronger. People kept heads held high and worked as hard as possible to help in anyway.
During the Great Depression, Hoover worked endlessly trying to fix the economy with different kinds of proposals. He formed government agencies to encourage labor harmony, supported local aid for public works, fostered cooperation between government and business in order to stabilize prices, and as well to struggle to balance the budget. Hoover refused to involve the federal government in forcing fixed prices, controlling businesses, or manipulating the value of the currency, because he felt it was stepping towards socialism. He also was inclined to give indirect aid to banks or local public works projects, but he refused to use federal money for direct aid to citizens, believing the dole would weaken public morale. Instead, he believes in volunteerism to raise money.
1.The great depression was a time between late 1929 to 1939 and was completely ended during World War Two. It started with a series of events, most famously the Wall Street stock market crash, that induce poverty on the American citizens. It caused the downfall of the US economy.
The Great Depression was a period in United States history when business was poor and many people were out of work. The beginning of the Great Depression in the United States was associated with the stock market crash on October 29, 1929, known as Black Tuesday. Thousands of investors lost large amounts of money and many were wiped out, lost everything. Banks, stores, and factories were closed and left millions of Americans jobless and homeless (Baughman 82).
The Dust Bowl was a treacherous storm, which occurred in the 1930's, that affected the midwestern people, for example the farmers, and which taught us new technologies and methods of farming. As John Steinbeck wrote in his 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath: "And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out. Carloads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land." The early thirties opened with prosperity and growth. At the time the Midwest was full of agricultural growth. The Panhandle of the Oklahoma and Texas region was marked contrast to the long soup lines of the Eastern United States.
The Great Depression era was a dark moment in history for American economic history, however often times we overlook the tremendous response from our federal government. President Roosevelt used the power of the presidency to pass several monumental pieces of economic legislation such as the Emergency Banking Act and the Glass-Steagall Act. Roosevelt’s administration also passed legislation that formulated various social programs such as the Public Works Program and the Federal Housing Authority. These programs were largely focused on providing temporary relief for American citizens. Furthermore, many Americans were employed to construct parks, roads, and bridges. World War II also played a big part in stimulating the American economy during this time period. Citizens at home were able to work on machinery and other military accessories to supply the troops during the war. Franklin D. Roosevelt and his administration brought America through the most difficult economic time in its history and they ushered in pragmatic progressive economic policies.
The Great Depression was one of the most important historical events that has happened within the last century that impacted every Americans life one way or another. There were many factors that could be an explanation of why The Great Depression happened, but there is no one definitive list of the reasons of what caused The Great Depression. It was a mixture of events in the United States and outside of it that probably led to this period of time to happen. The main reason that everyone could agree on was the event of the Wall Street Crash of 1929. Because of The Crash, it made people go on a bank run which made thousands of banks to close because they simply did not have all the money for all the people wanting to withdraw their savings. Because everyone was trying to take their savings out, most people were turned down by the bank and essentially lost of their savings in the bank. The banks were failing and because they had no more money left, this stopped the banks from having available credit for people to use which made matters even worse for the people. This leads people to poverty and were left with nothing. Because people were poor and were scared of spending their money now, it made people stop buying extra things that weren't essential to live. This was the cause of the unemployment rates during this time period because if no one was buying anything, then there was no reason to keep extra workers for things people are not buying.
The Great Depression was in no way the only depression the country has ever seen, but it was one of the worst economic downfalls in the United States. As for North America and the United States, the Great Depression was the worst it had ever seen. In addition to North America, the Depression greatly affected Europe and other various countries throughout the world significantly during the 1920’s and 1930’s. The Great Depression was caused by the collapse of the Stock Market, which happened in October of 1929. The crash exhausted about forty percent of the paper values of common stocks. It was the worst depression due to the fact that at the time of the Great Depression the government involvement in the economy was higher than it had ever been. A unique government agency had been set up exclusively to prevent depressions and their related troubles for instance bank panics. All of ...
The Great Depression was caused by the stock market crash. The stock market crash was an event that happened on October 29, 1929. The crash was caused by overproduction in the United States and high import tariffs in Europe.
Throughout the history of the United States, never before was there a longer period of dust storms to occur as The Dust Bowl, most commonly known as “the dirty thirties.” The Dust Bowl affected farmers in parts of the United States and Canada, but it was most commonly found in the Southwest/Midwest. Unlike other severe catastrophes which caused damage to ones ecology and agriculture, “Georg Borgstrom, has ranked the creation of the Dust Bowl as one of the three worst ecological blunders in history” (Worster 4) due to the fact it only took fifty years to accomplish. Many living in the Southern plains during this time of period struggled to maintain a living, “The bank, the fifty-thousand-acre owner can’t be responsible. You’re on land that isn’t yours. Once over the line maybe you can pick cotton in the fall. Maybe you can go on relief. Why don’t you go to California? There’s work there, and it never gets cold” (Steinbeck 23). The greed within the farmers during the 18th century unfortunately led to the Dust Bowl because they were too focussed on obtaining available rich acres to expand their industry and business for money. Ultimately, this led to the occurrence of “Black Sunday,” the migration of farmers fleeing to the Western parts of America, and the economic factors of those affected by the Dust Bowl.
Many people think that the Great Depression was caused solely by the stock market crash. Anybody who tells you this probably didn’t pass U.S. History in high school. The fact is, the Great Depression was caused many different factors. Four of which were overproduction, uneven distribution of wealth, protective tariffs, and the four “sick industries” of the 1920’s.
The Dust Bowl also known as the “Dirty Thirties” was the one of the worst disasters in the environment. It was a century long from 1931 to 1939. It lead the depression into bad circumstances than what it already was in.
In America the Great Depression left families homeless, many fathers and mothers jobless leading to children being homeless, and forced many men to leave their families in search of jobs. The Dust Bowl ruined many American farmers, it forced them to give up their land and homesteads. The Dust Bowl was brought on by poor farming strategies and the worst drought in history. The people of the 1930’s managed to persevere through the Dust Bowl by having grit and never giving
The one thing that is really known about the Great Depression is that it had many under lying causes (McElvaine 26). Speculation in the 1920's caused many people to buy stocks with loaned money and the used these stocks as collateral for buying more stocks. Broker's loans went under $5 million in mid 1928 to $850 million in September of 1929. The stock market boom was very unsteady, because it was based on borrowed money and false optimism. When investors lost confidence, the stock market collapsed, taking them along with it (http://www.bergen.org/AAST/Projects/depression/causes.html).
The Great Depression was a period of first-time decline in economic movement. It occurred between the years 1929 and 1939. It was the worst and longest economic breakdown in history. The Wall Street stock market crash started the Great Depression; it had terrible effects on the country (United States of America). When the stock market started failing many factories closed production of all types of good. Businesses and banks started closing down and farmers fell into bankruptcy. Many people lost everything, their jobs, their savings, and homes. More than thirteen million people were unemployed.
The Great Depression was the deepest and longest-lasting economic downfall in the history of the United States. No event has yet to rival The Great Depression to the present day, although we have had recessions in the past, and some economic panics, fears. Thankfully, the United States of America has had its share of experiences from the foundation of this country and throughout its growth, many economic crises have occurred. In the United States, the Great Depression began soon after the stock market crash of October 1929, which sent Wall Street into a panic and wiped out millions of investors ("The Great Depression."). In turn, from this single tragic event, numerous amounts of chain reactions occurred.