Tittle: The impact of the great depression on the American people In this essay I will be taking a look at how families where affected by the great depression and the forth coming new deal. This essay will all cover the position of society gearing the great depression .especially the role women played and women’s reaction to all the changes with in the great depression and new deal structures. Let’s start by taking a short look at what the great depression. As it is stated in the Encyclopaedia Americana” It isn't easy to give a brief summary of the Great Depression. It was, without a doubt, the longest and most severe economic downturn in American history.
Mother Nature wrought her fury upon the poor farmer; through grasshoppers, floods, and droughts. But farmers placed the blame of their problems on two key areas: the money supply and the railroads. Deflation became a major problem in the 1800s for famers. Suffering more and more losses, year after year, many farmers were forced into foreclosure by their “Eastern Master (Doc D).” The main reason farmers were blaming this “Eastern Master” was that no one seemed to be aiding them in their plight apart from certain specific institutions, such as the Populist Party and the Grange. So they naturally turned to the Populist Party, who felt that silver was the answer, and the refusal to coin it a “vast conspiracy against mankind” across “two continents” and subsequently supported legislation such as The Sherman Silver Purchase Act, and a rebuke of the Coinage Act of 1873 (Doc A).
Boyle and John Steinbeck used direct characterization. These literary devices helped both authors express their themes of depression. One theme that occurred in both books was the theme of depression. In The Grapes of Wrath the Joad family struggles to survive on their farm in Oklahoma. Dust Bowls threatened the survival of their crops and the government forced them to leave their home.
Many were left unemployed and had to take to the road to find work. A severe drought also ravaged America, destroying crops causing vast, treeless plains. This came to be known as the Dust Bowl. The unrelenting drought and the plummeting prices of crops, ruined many farming families. The Great Depression is evident throughout the novel through the hardships that the people of Maycomb experience.
How accurate is it to say growth of reformist groups in the years from 1881 was the main cause of 1905 revolution? Long term- social • 80% peasants- poverty- a lot of ppl against him as he was making them work like slaves- should have helped them because majority & produce the food • Peasants reacted to famine with violence= had enough- attacked gov officials & destroyed gov land holding records • Poor working & living conditions- why wasn’t the Tsar * Agricultural crisis: peasants had huge debts; not enough land for everyone; famine. * Rapid industrialisation: over populated cities; workers living in slums; wages low; hours long. Long term – political • Autocracy- gave Tsar all power but was mostly helping upper class • No elected national parliament= demand for political reform • Reformers had nothing in common apart hate for Tsar= desperation * ruled by a Tsar, who had complete control over the country. However, he was a weak ruler and failed to rule his people properly * he treated opposition with violence and the Okhrana (the secret police) * Political repression; compared with other countries democracies; Tsar was VERY WEAK and easily influenced.
In these winter months there were signs of the country’s morale and unity breaking, it was not helped when Germany was hit with an influenza epidemic, wiping out 20-40 million, the resistance to the disease was lowered due to decline in living conditions. Inflation was also a problem facing Germany after the war, the people were forced to work longer hours, but wages still fell below the inflation rate. As a result of these effects social discontent grew, and anger was expressed at sharks of the industry who appeared to be making money from the war. The
Limits and Legacies of The New Deal “The Great Depression had devastated the nation“(Jim Crow). The New Deal made major reforms and changes in American economy, addressed many problems, however, some important issues especially regards to minorities were left unaddressed. One group, which receives little attention, was African American. “Hundreds of thousands of sharecroppers left the land for the cities, leaving behind abandoned fields and homes”(Jim Crow). The Great Depression created rapid increase in black unemployment.
Summary: The Dust Bowl Migration The Dust Bowl was an ecological disaster in the Great Plains during the 1930’s. The Great Plains had suffered severe drought for several years which then led to the depletion of the soil used by farmers to harvest their major crops- wheat and cotton. This interesting phenomenon led to the massive migration of almost 3 million farmers and the intervention from the government. This mass migration became known in History as the Dust Bowl Migration. Since it occurred during the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl migration became significant due to the riskiness in relocation because of such high unemployment rates.
Short term causes included the embarrassing defeated faced by Russia in the Russo-Japanese war. This loss to a ‘second rate power’ not only undermined the Tsars power, but also resulted in already poor conditions in towns deteriorating further. The high taxes that were introduced at one of the many times of great famine angered many peasants already struggling to survive. Finally the economic slump further raised unemployment in the working classes. Although at first glance the revolution may appear to have been a failure, there were many successes that came as a result.
There were still a lot of long term effects that were causing ill feeling towards the Tsar before Bloody Sunday even took place. The peasants were still feeling disappointed in the Tsar after the devastating impact of the famine across Russia during 1891, in which the government had, if anything, exacerbated the situation by continuing to force peasants to export the food they had, and leave themselves to starve. Once more, Nicholas the second had let them down, when he was supposed to be their protector. This is when people first began seriously having their doubts about the Tsar and his total authority. One of the other key long term causes was the industrial recession that was taking place after the “great spurt” within Russia.