Charles Sheeler's View Of New York City

America finally had the war behind it. The country was booming and the majority had a carefree attitude. People were accustom to their lives and were not prepared for what was about to happen in 1929. The new decade would be a time of great change for everyone – art included. The 1920’s would bring a rollercoaster of events to America.

The stock market crash in 1929 had a devastating effect on the American citizens and people around the world. Thousands of men and women were out of work, banks were being closed, people lost all their hard-earned savings, families were being evicted from their homes, food was hard to attain, the world was in a dismal and desperate state. In one form or another the Great Depression troubled everyone. However, there was a lot of good and success that occurred during this dark time. As author and English professor Marianna Torgovnick states “ the Empire State Building, the Chrysler Building, King Kong… Fred Astaire, Shirley Temple… Joe DiMaggio, Amelia Earhart, Dracula Films, the Lone Ranger, Superman,

The Great Depression is one of the most misunderstood events in not only American history but also Great Britain, France, Germany, and many other industrialized nations. It also has had important consequences and was an extremely devastating event in America. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world. When the New York Stock Exchange crashed in October 1929, the United States dropped sharply into a major depression. The world was in wide demand for agricultural goods during World War I, but they had rapidly decreased after the war and rural America experienced a severe depression throughout most of the 1920's and even on into the 1930's.

In the Great Depression, the American dream had become a nightmare. What was once the land of opportunity was now the land of desperation. The Great Depression was an economic slump in North America, Europe, and other industrialized areas of the world that began in 1929 and lasted until about 1939. It was the longest and most severe depression ever experienced by the industrialized Western world. Nevertheless, it had immense impact on the evolution of American vernacular dance by bringing jazz music and dance to the masses, raising the nation’s spirit through music and dance.

Many consider the Great Depression a tragedy but few actually know the ways in which it actually affected the people who lived through it. One way it affected the people of the time is the hopelessness it brought. During the early 1920's many men returned from the "Great War" jaded and angry. The same effect was seen in most people during the depression. It was this hopelessness that spawned modernist literature and thought. Another way the depression affected the everyday man was the loss of homes. Many homes were foreclosed during the depression and this left many homeless. In fact the "Okies" were people left homeless after farm foreclosures. The last way the depression affected people was the broken homes it caused. The number of father's leaving their families rose dramatically during

The Great Depression was a dark time in American history that lasted from1929-1939. It began after the Stock Market crashed on October 19, 1929. According to A Biography of America: FDR- The Great Depression, “It was the deepest and longest lasting economic downturn in American History” (A Biography of America). As a result of the Great Depression one out of every four Americans was out of work. The Great Depression resulted in a life for Americans that was plagued by overproduction and under-consumption of products, starving families were forced into bread and soup lines, and thousands of agricultural workers became migratory workers in order to survive.

A national disaster in American history, the Great Depression of the 1930s had an enormous effect on the entirety of the United States population, and was not specific to any race or gender. The Great Depression, as its title suggests, was a long period of economic struggle in America, lasting from 1929 to 1933, caused by numerous factors such as the crashing of the stock market and the end of technological

“On the morning of October 29, 1929, panicked voices shouted over one another. Here and there, men leaned against the walls, hands over their faces as if trying to shut out the scene. In the street outside, a crowd had gathered, trying to learn the news. A man staggered out the door, clutching his hat in both hands. He looked as though he might weep. “It’s gone,“ he whispered, so quietly only the few closest to him heard. “It’s all gone.”# The term ‘Great Depression’ according to Kristin Brennan evokes black-and-white images of thin men in threadbare suits and worn-out shoes selling five-cent apples on city streets, of “grim-faced women lined up three deep to collect bread and milk at relief stations.”# The Great Depression of the 1930s

The Great Depression remains to be the worst economic slump ever in American history and one which spread practically all over the industrialized world. The Depression bombarded in late 1929 and lasted nearly a decade. Many factors elemented the depth of the widespread prosperity. However, combined, the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920's and the extensive stock market speculation that took place during the latter part that same decade remain the key of all elements.

The 1930s for the United States was not one of the best times in history. October 29, 1929 was the start of the great depression. One of the hardest parts of history in the united states. The Great depression was when the stock market crashed and unemployment skyrocketed. Unemployment reached to nearly 13 to 15 million people, which is about 25 percent, up from 3.2 percent in 1929. Industrial production declined by 50 percent, international trade plunged 30 percent, and investment fell 98 percent, and almost half of the banks in the united states also have failed. People across the nation lost their farms and homes. Some traveled to other states in hopes of employment with no luck.

The Great Depression was the perfect breeding ground for fear and chaos. The United States was drastically impacted, and no one could escape its wrath! The Great Depression not only affected the nation’s economy and way of life, but it also had a huge impression on people’s beliefs and attitudes. Life was a daily struggle, and Americans had to adapt and cope during hard times. People feared the unknown and had to be very resourceful. A landmark trial made headlines because “riding the rails” became a popular means of transportation.

In the words of Dorothy Rowe, “Depression is a prison where you are both the suffering prisoner and the cruel jailer.” This phrase doesn’t directly talk about the Great Depression, but it describes how you can put yourself in situations and suffer consequences for your own actions. The period of economic hardship known as the Great Depression can never be forgotten because it was full of unemployment and a major economic downfall that forced Americans to live an unfortunate lifestyle.

In “Ways of Seeing”, John Berger, an English art critic, argues that images are important for the present-day by saying, “No other kind of relic or text from the past can offer such direct testimony about the world which surrounded other people at other times. In this respect images are more precise and richer literature” (10). John Berger allowed others to see the true meaning behind certain art pieces in “Ways of Seeing”. Images and art show what people experienced in the past allowing others to see for themselves rather than be told how an event occurred. There are two images that represent the above claim, Arnold Eagle and David Robbins’ photo of a little boy in New York City, and Dorothea Lange’s image of a migratory family from Texas; both were taken during the Great Depression.