Historical Study: The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl

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Historical Study The Great Depression and The
Dust Bowl

• Tenth Grade Literature and Composition

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The Dust Bowl and The Great Depression
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Introduction

• How did The Great Depression affect America?

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Topics of Discussion

• The Roaring Twenties
• The economy in the late 1920s
• The Stock Market Crash
• The Dust Bowl
• The lives of Migrant Workers

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The Roaring Twenties

• The first topic we will cover is the decade
  called the roaring twenties.
• Lets check out the poster

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The Roaring 1920s!!!

• First shopping mall built
• First fast food chain, AW Root Beer
• Appliances were being massed producedradios,
  washing machines, telephones, cars
• Companies spend 1.5 billion on advertising in
  1927
• Ford built his automobile empire
• People began to buy things on credit
• Business were booming!

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Contrast the men and women in these two drawings.
What makes them different?

• Victorian Woman Jazz Age Woman

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The Economy of the Late 1920s

• Everybody ought to be rich
• 200 large companies controlled 49 of all
  American industry
• Too many goods, not enough demand
• Farm prices fell after WWI
• Farmers not able to repay their debts

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The Stock Market Crash

• Stocks hit all-time highs in September of 1929
• In October, stocks began to fall
• Ex. General Electric stocks bought for 400 sold
  for 283
• Black Tuesday16.4 million shares sold, compared
  to average of 4 million
• This collapse of the stock market is known as the
  Great Crash

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Why did the market crash?

• Many people bought stocks on marginlike a loan
• Companies lied about their profitsremember
  Enron?
• Economies like ours go through natural boom and
  bust cycles
• Republican Presidents believed in laissez
  faireno control on businesses
• Stock market was not regulated by government

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The Stock Market CrashFrom Riches to Ruin

• Many wealthy families lost everything
• Some even committed suicide
• Millions of people who never owned a single stock
  lost their jobs, farms and homes
• The crash triggered a much wider, long term
  crisis known as the Great Depression
• The Depression lasted from 1929 to 1941 when
  America entered WWII
• The Depression had a ripple effect that hurt the
  economies of other countries

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How many people were unemployed in 1925? In 1929?
In 1932?
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Great Crash
What was the average stock value in 1929? 1932?
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How many banks were suspended in 1925? In 1933?
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A Dust Storm in Eastern Colorado
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Another Dust Storm
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A father and his two sons seek shelter from a
dust storm
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Sand covering a farm after a dust storm
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An abandoned farm in Kansas.
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A collage of newspaper headlines from the Dust
Bowl
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A man in the midst of a dust storm
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The Dust Bowl- 1930s

• The Great Plains regionN. S. Dakota, Nebraska,
  Colorado, Kansas Oklahoma and northern Texas
• Farmers plow the plains, eliminating the
  protective layer of grass
• Wheat replaces grasstractors make it much easier
• Severe drought
• High winds
• Layers of top soil blown away, leaving dunes of
  grit and sand

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A family in a lean-to tent
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Escaping the Black Blizzard
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Migrant Workers

• As the "double whammy" of drought and depression
  deepened on the Great Plains, more and more
  farmers gave up or were forced off of their land.
  
• In addition, the relentless march of new tractors
  meant that the farmers who were able to scrape
  together enough money to buy a tractor could buy
  out their neighbors.
• Fewer farmers could farm more land. But where
  would those who left go?

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These boots are made for walkin

• Some went to cities. But many decided to head
  west.
• During the 30s hundreds of thousands left the
  plains for the West Coast. So many migrated from
  Oklahoma that they were dubbed "Okies" in the
  popular press.
• For years, California, Oregon and Washington had
  been growing. Many who were pushed off of the
  plains were pulled west because they had
  relatives who had moved to the coastal areas
  which offered a perfect climate and an abundance
  of work in the agricultural industry.

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A family trying to escape the dust bowl
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Connection to Of Mice and Men

• Clinging to each other in their loneliness and
  alienation, George and his simple-minded friend
  Lennie dream, as drifters will, of a place to
  call their own. But after they come to work on a
  ranch in the Salinas Valley their hopes, like
  "the best laid schemes o' mice an' men," begin to
  go awry.

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The End