Introduction.... p. 1

The Dust Bowl.... p. 1

Soup Kitchens and Breadlines.... p. 1

Hoverville’s.... p. 2

The North and the South.... p. 2

Urban and Rural Living.... p. 2

Family Life.... p. 3

Popular Culture.... p. 3

Radical Politics.... p. 4

Bibliography.... p. 4

Introduction

 

The following report is on the Great Depression, but then you may ask yourself, “What is a depression?”  For those of you who ask this, a depression is a downfall in the economy of a nation.  When I refer to the Great Depression, I mean the period of economic struggle in the United States between the crash of the stock market in 1929 to World War II in 1939.  World War II ended the Depression with the need for soldiers, pilots, and factory workers.  America’s presidents during this time were Herbert Hover and Franklin Delano Roosevelt (FDR).

 

 

The Dust Bowl

 

The Dust Bowl was the worst environmental disaster in the history of the United States.  It started in 1935 and lasted until the year 1938.  The Dust Bowl was a series of severe dust storms up to 5feet tall, covering large areas and forcing farmers to flee.  The ‘large areas’ stretched from North Dakota to Texas in the south and covered an area of 50 million acres.  Ever since the early 1930’s the mid-west had been suffering from drought. That combined with XXX farming techniques caused dust storms to erupt on the plains. 

There were many serious conditions caused by the excessive amount of dust.  One example is dust pneumonia.  The inhaled dust causes damage to the lungs.  However, the most serious problem was that everything and everyone was being buried beneath the dirt.

Farmers all over had to abandon their farms and search for new jobs.  This caused the amount of unemployed to grow even greater.  Many farmers set off for California, having heard many wonderful tales from there.  They were commonly called Okays; regardless of whether or not they were from Oklahoma.  Most of the Okays’ hopes for California never happened.  Many became migrant workers with very low wages and very hard work.  A migrant worker might earn about thirty dollars for the fig season.

 Franklin Roosevelt established the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) in 1935.  The goal of the SCS was to teach farmers how to protect the soil and slow erosion.  This would help stop loose dirt from being swept into dust storms.  The SCS also planted trees as wind breaks t o help prevent future conditions.  Fortunately, we haven’t had another Dust Bowl since then.

 

 

Soup Kitchens and Breadlines

 

As unemployment rates grew, more people had to depend on soup kitchens and breadlines to supply their food.  The food at these places, as the names imply, was a simple bowl of soup and/or a scrap of bread.  The first person to set up a soup kitchen due to Hoover’s request for private charities was gangster Al “Scarface” Capone in Chicago.  Some people however, were not so lucky as to have access to a soup kitchen or breadline.  These people often had to survive by eating berries and dandelions.

 

 

Hovervilles

 

When people first lost their jobs, and then their homes, new shelters had to be found.  The homeless would gather together to create their own towns on the outskirts of a city and build their shanties there.  These new “homes” were commonly made of cardboard or wood scraps.  These shantytowns were dubbed Hovervilles after President Hoover’s refusal to give aid to the homeless.

 

 

The North and the South

 

Just as in the past, the economy of the North relied on industry, while the economy of the South relied primarily on agriculture.  However, each was undergoing significant changes.   In the North workers were demanding unions for worker’s rights.  President Roosevelt supported unions and the New Deal ensured that Workers would not be cheated.  In the South, plantations were breaking up.  Agriculture was modernized and wages were raised.  Both the North and the South developed during this important time.

 

 

Urban and Rural Living

 

The Great Depression hit cities hard.  Most of what we here about the Depression is from the cities.  Among the various consequences were Hoovervilles, soup kitchens, many homeless, many unemployed, and of course, a collapsed economic system.  These all apply to the various city dwellers.  Perhaps the hardest hit in cities were the various minority groups such as Hispanics and African Americans.  These people were usually the last to be hired and the first to be fired.  Even the more experienced were cleared out to make room for the whites who lost their jobs.  These people however continued to work in dangerous areas, as domestic servants, at railroads, steel mills, and doing various other jobs.

The Great Depression hit rural areas hard too. Twenty-five percent of the population worked on farms in rural areas.  Farmers to had to lay off workers.  Another problem was with the Dust Bowl.  This decreased the supply of food, raising the prices.  More people didn’t have the money to eat.  In rural areas, many families lived off of berries and dandelions.  In the same minority groups mentioned above, the Great Depression did not hit as hard.  Poverty was a way of life for them and so this was nothing new.

Farmers had had financial decline since 1922.  When President Hoover came into office, the Agricultural Marketing Act set up the Federal Farm Board.  This caused farm prices to fall sixty percent and the World Market collapsed in 1931.  In total, the Federal Farm Board lost $354million.

 

 

Family Life

 

Family’s had various activities for their free time.  Neighbors gathered together to play cards, dominoes, baseball, and other games.  Radios and phonographs helped people pass the time and enjoy themselves.  Reading, puzzles and board games became popular.  Children did as they have always done, made their own toys and games.  Children went ice-skating and roller-skating.  They had snowball fights, raced on the way to school, perhaps on horseback.  On a farm children could ride in the hay wagons; in the city they could play hide and seek or drop the handkerchief.  Families found ways to have fun and be together.

 

 

Popular Culture

 

During the Great Depression, people relied on various forms of entertainment to brighten up their daily lives.  One common form of entertainment was the movies.  The only problem was the twenty-five cent admission fee.  Other forms of entertainment were musicals, the radio, dances, and board games.  Popular culture is however not only about forms of entertainment, but their values.  Most of the people during the Great Depression had a desire for order and security, for a sense of community, for a purpose, for emphasis on family, neighbors, the Church, and a desire to belong.

Movies and the radio brought a new world to people, if only for an hour.  In 1929, the movie Tarzan, by Harold Foster, was developed.  Tarzan was the first movie to use camera perspective instead of the flat style.  Other popular movies included The Lone Ranger, Popeye, Dracula, Frankenstein and The Wizard of Oz.  The Great Depression was the Golden age of the radio.  One well remembered production was called War of the Worlds.  War of the Worlds was fictional production based of the book by H.G. Wells.  It told of Martians landing in New Jersey, and of their various powers.

Musicals, music and dance also sparked interest into the lives of many people.  Swing, a style of jazz, brought around many dances, both for the average person, and for the theater.

Board games and puzzles were popular forms of entertainment and easy to make.  Both invented during the Great Depression are the famous games Scrabble, by Alfred Butts, and Monopoly, by Charles Darrow.  Darrow was unemployed when he made this game that reflects the values of success, competition, acquisition, and achievement.  

 

 

Radical Politics

 

“Radical politics” are extreme affairs having to do with government.  During the Great Depression, there were many reasons to be upset with the government, especially during President Hoover’s time. 

Here are a few examples of radical groups and movements.  The Farm Holiday of Milo Reno in May 1932, at Iowa consisted of farmers dumping milk and blocking streets in protest of farm foreclosures.  The Coal Caravan in Illinois consisted of ten thousand striking miners.  Fascist Khaki Shirts wanted to abolish Congress and build the world’s largest army.  Upton Sinclair founded the E.P.I.C. (End Poverty In California) to change production-for-profit into production-for-use.  Howard Scott thought that technicians should rule society instead of politicians so he started the Technocracy Movement.  Charles Coughlin started the National Union for Social Justice to oppose FDR and Henry Morgenthaw.  Coughlin was a priest who gave sermons on the radio and had 35 stations with forty million listeners.  His last operation, a newspaper, was stopped in 1942 for being pro-Nazi.

Perhaps the most famous movement was the Bonus March.  It all started in 1931 when President Hoover vetoed the bill that allowed veterans to borrow up to fifty percent of their pension. The veterans marched to Washington D.C. and set up camp there; as many as 22,000 veterans participated.  Finally, Hoover sent 700 of their troops to clear them out.  This resulted in 300 casualties.  The camp was burned and tear gas was used to evacuate the veterans.  Congress passed the bill despite the veto of Hoover.

 

 

 

Bibliography

 

“An Outline of American History”  odur.let.rug.nl/~usa/H/1994/ch10_p1.htm.

Feinstein, Stephen. “The 1930s: From the Great Depression to the Wizard of Oz”. Enslow Publishers, Inc. Berkeley Heights, NJ, 2001.

“Having Fun-Family Time”.  www.livinghistoryfarm.org/farminginthe30s/ life_20.html.  Jan. 30, 2005.

mtungsten.freeservers.com, Jan. 13, 2005.

“Responses to the Great Depression”.  history.sandiego.edu/gen/classes/20th/ responses.html.  Jan. 29, 2005

Stanley, Jerry. “Children of the Dust Bowl”. Crown Publishers, Inc., New York, NY, 1992.

Tomas, Jerry B. “The South and the New Deal” http://www.wvculture.org/ history/journal_wvh/wvh54-7.html. Jan. 29, 2005.