The Grapes of Wrath, the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl of the 1930’s

“Brother can youspare a dime?”

STOCK MARKET CRASH OF 1929

“Black Thursday”,

October 24, 1929

“Black Tuesday”, October 29, 1929

STRUCTURE OF AMERICAN SOCIETY

DISINTEGRATES

Factories and mines close

Banks are worthless

Consumer buying comes to a standstill

DROUGHT BEGINS TO PLAGUE THE MIDWEST

1931- Severe drought hits the midwestern and southern plains. As the crops die, the 'black blizzards" begin. Dust from the over-plowed and over-grazed land begins to blow.

1932 The number of dust storms is increasing. Fourteen are reported this year; next year there will be 38.

1932 – AMERICAN DREAMS ARE SHATTERED

14 million Americans are jobless (almost 1/3 the workforce)

Banks foreclose on houses and farms

No food, no clothes, no jobs

Recycled lifestyle

Hooverville, 1933

A squatter settlement built by Seattle, Washington’s homeless.

1934 – THE DROUGHT WORSENS

1934 MayGreat dust storms spread from the Dust Bowl area. The drought is the worst ever in U.S. history, covering more than 75 percent of the country and affecting 27 states severely.

DUST BOWL (DUST STORMS) OF THE SOUTHERN PLAINS 1934-

1935

Dust Storm Approaching Startford, Texas, 1930s

Black SundayApril 14, 1935

24 hours of a blinding dust stormDreaded black-blizzard covers entire disaster areaDrought adds further devastation

Map of Erosion and Dust on the Plains

The "Yearbook of Agriculture" for 1934 announces, "Approximately 35 million acres of formerly cultivated land have essentially been destroyed for crop production. . . . 100 million acres now in crops have lost all or most of the topsoil; 125 million acres of land now in crops are rapidly losing topsoil.

THE VICTIMS OF THE DUST BOWL

ColoradoKansasOklahomaNew MexicoTexas

Devastation of their cropland

Respiratory health issues

Unsanitary living

Rampant crime

Debt-ridden families

DUST BOWL ORPHANS

Mass exodus to CaliforniaOpportunities in RussiaMigrant workers become source of cheap labor

Traveling from South Texas to the Arkansas Delta, 1936

FDR - Leading the U.S. from out of the Depression

1932 - FDR elected - First New Deal (“the hundred days”)

1934 - FDR approves the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, which provides $525 million for drought relief, and authorizes creation of the Works Progress Administration, which would employ 8.5 million people.

Second New Deal - Works Progress Administration poster

NRA - National Recovery

AdministrationAAA - Agricultural

Adjustment AdministrationCCC - Civilian

Conservation CorpsRFC -

Reconstruction Finance Corporation

NHA - National Housing Authority

The rise in union membership

This chart traces the percentage of workers claiming membership in unions between 1860 and 1989. The total number of U.S. union members doubled (from four million to eight million members) between 1930 and 1940.

Strike patterns

This chart traces strike patterns, including worker involvement in strikes, between 1881 and 1970. There is a sharp increase in the number and percentage of workers involved in strikes between 1931 and 1940.

Sit-down strike in Flint, MI

UAW organizers Walter Reuther and Richard Frankensteen pose for press photographers, River Rouge Plant, May 26, 1937

They were approached by Ford Service Department men

Ford men attacked

Reuther and Frankensteen immediately after the incident

The Hilo Massacre, August 1, 1938

Demonstrators were driven into Hawaii’s Hilo Harbor trying to escape police gunfire on the morning of

August 1, 1938. In support of striking Honolulu workers, more than two hundred Hilo trade unionists had

peacefully gathered to protest the unloading of the SS Waialeale.

1937-1939 - FDR Shelterbed Project

The project called for large-scale planting of trees across the Great Plains to protect the land from erosion. Native trees were planted along fence rows separating properties, and farmers were paid to plant and cultivate them. The project was estimated to cost 75 million dollars over a period of 12 years. In 1938, the extensive work re-plowing the land into furrows, and planting trees in shelterbelts resulted in a 65 percent reduction in the amount of soil blowing. However, the drought continued.

1939 – The Drought Ends

1939 In the fall, the rain comes, finally bringing an end to the drought. During the next few years, with the coming of World War II, the country is pulled out of the Depression and the plains once again become golden with wheat.

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath

• Novel published in 1939

• Film in 1940 (closely follows the novel)

• Reinforced the belief that migrants fled the dust storms

• In fact, they fled for varied reasons, including drought, falling agricultural prices, and mechanization of agriculture

16,000 farmers fled dust storms

400,000 migrated, from a larger area in the Southwest and Midwest

Famous scene: farmer confronts a man who is about to level his house, used the plight of farmers to convey a sense of unfocused outrage shared by many others during the Depression - people couldn’t figure out who was to blame for the disaster.

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath