Great Depression

The Great Depression was a massive global economic recession (or "depression") that ran from 1929 to approximately 1939. It led to numerous bank failures, high unemployment, as well as dramatic drops in Gross Domestic Product (GDP), industrial production, stock market share prices and virtually every other measure of economic growth. It is generally considered to have bottomed out in 1933, but it was not until well after the end of World War II before such indicators as industrial production, share prices and global GDP surpassed their 1929 levels.

Life during the Depression

In the so-called Dust Bowl, a massive area of the Great Plains consisting mainly of Kansas, Oklahoma, and parts of Texas, people found themselves unable to make a living. On top of the economic crisis, the earth withered and blew away in a series of massive dust storms. For a farming people this was disastrous, and these migrants were led westward by advertisements for work put out by agribusiness in western states such as California. The migrants came to be called Okies, Arkies, and other derogatory names as they flooded the labor supply of the agricultural fields, driving down wages and increasing competition for jobs in areas which couldn't afford it. This story was dramatized in the famous novels The Grapes of Wrath and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Life was challenging for those in Southern states also and many migrated north by train to work in auto plants around Detroit.

Related Topics:
Dust Bowl - Great Plains - Kansas - Oklahoma - Texas - Dust storm - Agribusiness - California - Okies - Arkies - The Grapes of Wrath - Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck

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