Essay On The Great Depression In America

The Dust Bowl, battering the Midwest for nearly a decade with high winds, bad farming techniques, and drought, became a pivotal point in American history. The wind storm that seemed relentless beginning in the early 1930’s until its spell ended in 1939, affected the lives of tens of thousands of Americans and the broader agriculture industry. The catastrophic effects of the Dust Bowl took place most prominently around the Great Plains, otherwise known as the farming belt, including states such as Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas, which were hit extraordinarily hard. Millions of farming acres destroyed by poor farming techniques was a major contributor to what is considered to be one of the worst man-made environmental disasters in American history. This period resulted in almost a decade of unstable farming and economic despair. Thousands of families sought government assistance in order to survive. Luckily, government aid to farmers and new agriculture programs that were introduced to help save the nation’s agriculture industry benefited families and helped the Great Plains recover from the Dust Bowl. Furthermore, the poor conditions in the farm belt were also compounded by the Great Depression as it was in full swing as the Dust Bowl began to worsen. In addition, World War I was also underway which caused a high demand for agricultural products, such as wheat, corn, and potatoes to be at its peak, which lured many people to the farm belt with the false expectation that farming

To keep the Great Plains residents healthy, “The Red Cross opened six emergency hospitals to deal with the crisis” (Brown 37). This shows that the Dust Bowl crisis got so bad that organizations like the Red Cross enlisted to help the Dust Bowl residents get back on their feet and become happy and healthy once again. To help with the situation, “The federal government developed programs to aid Dust Bowl residents” get back on their feet. This reveals that everyone had to join in the help get the Great Plains get back to its former glory and ability to produce crops. This also shows that the federal government was working to help prevent a disaster this big from occurring again. Finally “The long dry spell ended in the autumn of 1939. Rain drenched the plains for the two days and nights” (Heinrichs 39). This is important because nature finally ran its course and nourished the water-deprived soil. This shows that the long-awaited end to the Dust Bowl and drought had finally ended, bringing hope to not only Dust Bowl residents but all of the United States. The Dust Bowl, an event that caused so much destruction to the Great Plains and the American economy, was finally

The Great Depression first started as early as 1928, but did not affect the United States until 1929. The Great Stock Market crash started the event of the Depression here in America, but was not the main cause to why it happened. During the early stages of the depression, President Hoover failed to help the economy and continued with his belief system of giving people the least help they needed, so they can earn themselves a rightful spot with pride, not with government’s help. The Great Depression was a very intense experience for us, even until today, the

The events of the 1930’s, or the Great Depression, did the most to influence contemporary America. During the twenties, America was at its most prosperous economic times until the stock market crashed in 1929. The stock market crash led to a dramatic decline of the U.S. economy. The decline in the economy changed Americans everyday lives. In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt was elected president and he created the New Deal to provide relief, recovery and reform. The Depression impacted America in the 1930’s in every aspect of life and still impacts America today. Although contemporary America was shaped by many events that occurred in the 20th century, America was most influenced by the 1930’s because of legislation that improved daily life

The timeline of the dustbowl characterizes the fall of agriculture during the late 1920s, primarily the area in and surrounding the Great Plains. The Dust Bowl was created by a disruption in the areas natural balance. “With the crops and native vegetation gone, there was nothing to hold the topsoil to the ground” (“Dust Bowl and” 30). Agricultural expansion and dry farming techniques caused mass plowing and allowed little of the land to go fallow. With so little of the deeply rooted grass remaining in the Great Plains, all it took was an extended dry season to make the land grow dry and brittle. When most of the land had been enveloped by the grass dust storms weren’t even a yearly occurrence, but with the exponentiation of exposed land, the winds had the potential to erode entire acres. This manmade natural disaster consumed such a large amount of the South's agriculture that it had repercussions on the national level. The Dust Bowl was a “97-million-acre section

In November 1933, the worst drought in the history of the United States occurred across the Great Plains. The farming economy had already been hit hard by the depression and these storms created even more devastation. This large area of the plains became tagged with the name the “Dust Bowl”. Also known as “the dirty thirties” the dust bowl affected many farmers and their families in the Southwest/Midwest. The dust clouds caused by wind erosion, drought, and hardships led to a turning point not only in the agriculture effects of the world, but also the economic views.

Many events occurred before the years of the Dust Bowl began. The farmers plowed up all of the ground to grow “cash crops” (Marrin 58). The plowing of the soil left no grass to hold down the topsoil, leaving it vulnerable for wind erosion. In 1930, the people of the Great Plains had the biggest shortage of water in the history. “Seventeen million people were affected” (Worster 11). In the early 1930’s, the temperatures went higher than they ever had before (Marrin 52). By 1932, most people had reached their breaking point. Before the dust storms began, there was a cutworm plague, a grasshopper plague, and a rabbit plague (Reis 51 and 52). Between all of the natural problems occurring, the land and people were both exhausted. They had no idea

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s lasted about a decade. Its primary area of impact was on the southern Plains. The northern Plains were not so badly affected, but were still affected by the drought, dust and agricultural decline. The agricultural devastation helped to lengthen the Depression whose effects were felt worldwide. The movement of people on the Plains were devastating to the area. People were forced to move out of their homes due to dust filling their houses with dust

One of the most devastating and influential events in American history was the Dust Bowl. This catastrophe occurred in 1930s during the Great Depression. All across the Great Plains, a disaster was formulated by a combination of factors; some of these factors included little to no precipitation, light weight soil, and high wind speeds. Without plant roots holding down the earth, major dust storms or “black blizzards” would sweep through the farming regions blinding and killing cows and destroying any chance of future crop. This resulted in majority of agricultural based families moving.

The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression were catastrophic events that occurred in the mid-1930s and affected the Great Plains. One place in particular that suffered was the Oklahoma panhandle. The dust storms were so bad that farmers could not make a living, and the land was almost un-inhabitable. This drove many families to leave the panhandle and flee to places like California. Margaret Larason is a woman who was born in the pan handle before the Dust Bowl and Great Depression, and she even lived through it. She explains how she saw everything happening around her as she had just graduated from school.

In the 1930’s better known as “the dirty thirties”, the dust bowl effected thousands of framers and their families in the Southwest and the Midwest. The incredible power of dust clouds by wind erosion, over framing and the long drought lead to a turning point in the ways of agriculture and the economy. This is important because this event caused families to migrate to other mostly the west and even led to death and disease.

One group in this particular article, Farming and the Dust Bowl During the Great Depression, that was affected by the event was the farmers. The reason the farmers were affected, was because when the Dust Bowl hit it was also during the Great Depression and if farmers couldn’t plant crops because the land was dry and currently in drought, which meant that they couldn’t make money, or just simply debt. “In the 1920s, many farmers found themselves in a continual cycle of debt.” (Library of Congress, Ushistory.org) They were also in debt because of expensive equipment and the crash of the stock market. “Their money problems stemmed from falling farm prices and the need to purchase expensive machinery. When the stock market crashed in 1929, sending

The Dust Bowl added quickly to the chaos of The Great Depression during the 1930s. The Dust Bowl was a natural disaster and mainly erosion of topsoil which caused dusters and black blizzards. It mainly hit the area of the southwest which included the following states Kansas,Oklahoma, Arkansas, Dakota etc. A quick brief of what The Dust Bowl did … it affected more than a million of acres of land that were used mainly for farming. Also, thousands of farmers lost their livelihoods and properties, and migration began to emerge as farmers left rural areas to find work in the suburbs. Some people who were mainly affected by The Dust Bowl were people in the

The financial struggles caused many farmers to migrate away from the south. However, the economic disparity was not the only cause for the movement. During the thirties, there was a stretch of extreme droughts throughout the southern plains in the United States (Slides 4 & 5, PPT 1). This caused

The 1920s seemed to promise a future of a new and wonderful way of life for America and its citizens . Modern science, evolving cultural norms, industrialization, and even jazz music heralded exciting opportunities and a future that only pointed up toward a better life. However, cracks in the facade started to show, and beginning with the stock market crash of 1929 the wealth of the country, and with it the hopes and expectations of its people, began to slip away. The Great Depression left a quarter of the population unemployed and much of the rest destitute and uncertain of what the future held. Wealth vanished, people took their money out of banks, and plans were put on hold. The most significant way in which the Great Depression affected Americans’ everyday lives was through poverty because it tore relationships apart and damaged the spirit of society while unexpectedly bringing families together in unity.