Summary Of The Great Depression Freedman

This statement some people may or may not agree with since this paper will talk about children during this time period you can already come to the conclusion that I agree with this statement. Imagine for a second a child walking into a toy store and sees a toy they really want, now imagine the sadness in the child’s face when they realize that their parent can’t afford the toy. Children during the Great Depression often wanted things they couldn’t have. Some children were forced to grow up to help their parents around the house, and raise younger siblings. One boy named Gordon Park was sixteen years old, he changed from full-time to a part-time bellboy at the Minnesota Club to attend high school (Freedman 2005).

The America in the 1930s was drastically different from the luxurious 1920s. The stock market had crashed to an all time low, unemployment was the highest the country had ever seen, and all American citizens were affected by it in some way or another. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal was effective in addressing the issues of The Great Depression in the sense that it provided immediate relief to US citizens by lowering unemployment, increasing trust in the banks, getting Americans out of debt, and preventing future economic crisis from taking place through reform. Despite these efforts The New Deal failed to end the depression. In order for America to get out of this economic

The Great Depression was a very influential era in American history, affecting many future generations. One of the most prevalent impacts it had on society was the extreme poverty that swept across the nation, affecting both people in cities and in the country. The main cause for this poverty was the mass loss of jobs among the middle class. Millions lost their jobs and consequently their homes. Families lived out of tents and cars in shanty towns or Hoovervilles. In these camps, many people didn’t have their basic human needs met, children and adults alike starved. They lived in clothes that were caked in dirt and tattered, too small for growing children and too cold for the frail elderly. Government relief programs attempted to help but offered little support to the now impoverished families of the millions that lost everything.

How does one keep faith in a country during times of destitute and agony? In 1929, the stock market crashed. Poverty struck the country fast like the huge dust storms in the west. The new president, F.D.R, promised to relieve, recover and reform the country with various organizations. Churches and other groups set up food lines. F.D.R’s main goal was to put every American to work. The dilemmas of the Great Depression were soon set out to be handled by actions by the federal and state governments.

The Depression changed social structure in America forever. “The real story of the 1930’s is how individual families endured and survived, whether battling the despair of hunger and unemployment in the city of the fear of unending drought and forced migration in the dust bowl of the Great plains.” (Press, Petra pg 6)

The journal article begins by introducing an African American couple who resided in Russellville, Kentucky. James Wright held an occupation as a corn cutter while his wife Gladys worked as a cook in a white home. The time span of their journey occurred at the beginning of the great depression all the way through World War II. Seeking better employment opportunities, James traveled to Louisville. Although, his first couple trips were in vain. His resilience and determination eventually lead to a job working for International Harvester. During an era of many trials and tribulations, James found a way to support himself and his family by migrating from a rural to an urban area. By sharing this anecdote the author establishes a mood of hardship

In The Greatest Generation Grows up: American Childhood in the 1930’s, Kirste Lindenmeyer argues that the children of the Great Depression were the targets of and influenced the social and political change during the depression. Lindenmeyer does this by using many first-hand accounts to support her claim. Lindenmeyer then uses the lack of work as a chapter to also support her argument. Another point that Lindenmeyer successfully uses is the change in educational policies and regulations to reinforce her claim on the political side of it. There is a point that can hurt some of Lindenmeyer’s sources is that some of her primary sources were taken note of many years after the Great Depression.

The 1960s to many Americans at the time, was, and continues to be referred to as the

McElvaine book reveals a collection of letters of the forgotten men, women, and children who suffered through the Great Depression. McElvaine puts the reader in direct contact with Depression victims, showing a feeling of what it was like to live through this dilemma. The writers of the letters came from different kinds of people:middle-class people, blacks, rural residents, the elderly, and children. By looking at the Great Depression from the perspectives of its victims of diverse backgrounds and McElvaine gives the reader a better understanding of their struggles on a more personal level.

Cecchetti, Stephen G. "Understanding the Great Depression: Lessons for Current Policy ." Monetary Economics (1997): 1-26.

During the Great Depression roughly 25% of the workers were 15 years old or younger, 20% of the children were starving and didn’t have access to new clothes and other necessities and about 40% of the young adults 16-24 were either unemployed or not in school. This shows that a great majority of the youth living during this time were not able to experience a normal childhood where they went to school and came home to play with their friends, because they had to work and were not able to attend school and get a proper education. Most of the kids also went to bed starving because their families could not afford to pay for food. Living as a child during the Great Depression was incredibly challenging

Setting: Takes place in an orphanage of the streets of Chicago 1932 (The Great Depression)

Donald Justice grew up in Florida, he like to studied about musical instrument like piano. And he was graduated a bachelor’s degree from the University of Miami in 1945. He also received an M.A. from the university of North Carolina in 1947,studied for at Stanford University, and earned a doctorate from the University of Iowa in 1954. Then Donald Justice taught at Syracuse University, California at lrvine, Princeton, Virginia, and the University of Florida in Gainesvile.

What triggered the Great Depression? A. Plan of Investigation The topic I have chosen to investigate for the Historical Investigation is The Great Depression. The Depression was the worst economic downturn in American history. This crucial event, serves as a lesson that individuals should make use of their money wisely, and that governments around the globe, are in charge of overseeing their economies so they can prevent another disaster.

Children who were raised in the US have grown up hearing stories of the Great Depression. We learned simple basics in class such as the stock market crashed, lots of people lost jobs, and it was a very rough patch in American history. It is not until we are older that the gaps of how the stock market crashed, why people lost jobs, and what was so rough about this time become filled. The documentary on the Great Depression we watched in Global History served as a great way to fill in those gaps providing much more details explanations of what happened.