recap....lots of banks and businesses closed. other countries suffered during our great depression as well. hobos, shantytowns, breadlines, government laize fairre.
hobos had their own language of symbols, used to communicate with other hobos about what to expect in certain locations. hobos who had been there before left them behind to help out their comrades.
#? Dust Bowl (yay sarah!!!!)
lasted about the length of the great depression
mainly due to overfarming, because when the farmers were told to plant more, they tore up all the hard mostly pasture ground on the great plains, which left the ground unrooted, so the soil was really loose. so when the drought and the winds picked up the way they did in the 1930s, it blew all the soil around the nation, and the farmers couldnt plant anything, so they couldnt get any money, so they lost their jobs and went bankrupt, etc.
great plains used to be known as the great american desert, because it was dry and people assumed it was not fertile. this was because it had never been tilled before, so the ground was hard from centuries of being....ground.
black blizzards- the worst of the windstorm. sand drifts- like snow drifts, only with dirt.
Okies- people who left oklahoma for california, one of the most affected states in the Dust Bowl, to look for jobs.
#?? depressed...
lots of men were embarrassed because they could no longer support their families. many even left their families altogether.
Welfare- giving people in financial distress money. hoover disapproved, saying it would make people lazy.
cities tried to help people directly, although the federal government did nothing
#??? Women struggle to survive
women had to start working more, becuase their husbands couldnt support them or their families. women learned budgeting, new ways to make clothes and preserve food, etc. did lots of odd jobs to scrape by.
they were discriminated against, becuase the men were upset that women would have jobs when they did not. embarrassment and pride, again. stupid pig-headed men.
part of the reason mostly men were in breadlines was becuase women were totally ashamed to show their hardships. because it was their jpob to take care of the home, not to go out to find food or work.
#???? Hardships for Children
lots of teenagers felt they were a burden at home, so they hopped on trains and hitched rides all over the country to fend for themselves. adventurous but dangerous.
lots of schools closed down or shortened their schoolyear considerably. so about 300,000 students were out of an education.
congress passed a bill stating kids over 16 could go into the workfield.\
#????? Social and Psychological effects
suicide rate went way up.
people became big money savers. were determined to never be poor again, never to go through such a depression. people lost trust in the banks.
rationing became a habit.
the depression generation and those that followed soon after were much stronger than we are today. we are used to having everything we want handed to us (albeit with payment...) whereas they had to fight for their lives against poverty and starvation.
Hoover's Background.
born august 10th, 1874, died october 28, 1964
only president from iowa. his father was a blacksmith, died when he was four. mother died 5 years later, so he was orphaned at age 9. grew up with other fmily members. he was a Quaker.
among the first to attend harvard university. trained engineer with no military records. humanitarian, like to help people.
8 months aftert the sstock market crash, he pretty much did nothing about the great depression. therefore, he went down in history as the worst president. ironic. he just didnt believe the government should get involved in such things.
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