1. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl: 1929-1942
Looking at how the depression affected people’s lives

2. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl
By 1932, 12 million people were unemployed
That is 25% of the entire American population at this time. (The unemployment rate now is 7%)

3. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl
How do you eat when you
have no money?
People had to wait in
bread lines and at soup
kitchens for food

4. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl
Many people lost their entire life savings when the banks failed, and therefore they also lost their homes
They had to make new homes out of cardboard, tin, or crates
These makeshift homes are known as Hoovervilles

5. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl

6. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl
What about the farmers out west?
Life was just as bad as they faced falling income, foreclosure, and drought

7. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl
Their income dropped by half
Why?
People could not buy food!

8. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl
A drought in the plain states and southwest worsened their situation

9. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl
The drought combined with poor farming methods resulted in a loss of topsoil, which would get whipped into giant dust storms
The “Dust Bowl”

10. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl

11. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl
People couldn’t live and farm here with these economic and environmental problems
A group of migrant farmers moved to California looking for work
They are known as Okies

12. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl

13. Great Depression and the Dust Bowl
How do we beat the Depression?
Starts in 1932 with a new President
Franklin Delano Roosevelt defeats Hoover (FDR)
He promises a New Deal for Americans