1. Of Mice and Men - Novel Study - Research Project, YEAR 10 - JANUARY 2012
Research
THE GREAT DEPRESSION. 1930s CALIFORNIA Depression. By the end of 1930, America was in the
deep end and entered into a Great Depression.
Remi Ojumu
There were also other causes of the Great
How did the Great Depression in 1930 come about? Depression. After the Wall Street Crash, people
started to purchase less and less items. This meant
The Great Depression of the United States in 1929 that fewer items were manufactured and fewer
was a decade long, worldwide depression where the people were needed to work. Because of this, the
stock market was at an all time low. unemployment line rose by 25%.
The Great Depression was caused by many things. In addition, America started to increase the tax for
The most known and notable cause of it was the Wall importing goods. Following this, fewer trades were
Street Crash. The Wall Street crash was a crash in happening between America and other European
the stock market. Billions of dollars were lost. The countries. So no money was being brought in.
Federal Reserve (America’s Central bank) kept
raising the fund’s rate in 1928. This led all the way to All of these causes led to America having one of its
October the 29th 1929. On this day, all the money worst periods ever. Unemployment was high,
that America gained that year was lost. The day that starvation-caused deaths increased, industrial
this occurred was named BLACK TUESDAY. 14 Billion production dropped, the banking system collapsed
dollars worth of shares were traded that day. After and many people had to live on the streets in areas
two months, America’s market had lost over 40 known as HOOVERVILLES. All of this came about after
billion dollars. the crash of the stock market in America.
Banks started to fail as well, as the public wanted to
withdraw their savings. When the banks couldn’t pay
off all the people, they were forced to close. Over
9000 banks went out of business during the Great
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2. Of Mice and Men - Novel Study - Research Project, YEAR 10 - JANUARY 2012
Endrit people decided to reduce the cost of their shares
which made banks think they were going to lose a lot
The main reason for the depression in the 1930′s of money. Some banks were correct in thinking this
was because of the wall street crash. This occured in as many of the smaller banks had started to shut
October 1919 when the share prices began to fall on down due to heavy losses.
the Wall Street Stock Exchange in New York. Falling The larger banks were able to last longer so started
shares meant that peoples investments fell in value. recalling loans people had decided to take for
This caused people to worry about losing money, so investing in businesses. People had to return loans so
people rushed to sell their shares before they fell in kept selling shares which led to them reducing the
price further. The amount of people selling their prices. Many people had to use their life savings to
shares sent share prices even lower. Banks were repay loans as they could not make money by selling
were major investors in shares and the price of shares. Some even had to sell their homes for cheap
shares going down meant to pay back the loans as if
that the banks lost so much they did not, they faced
money, causing the criminal charges. This lead
depression in the 1930s to many people becoming
homeless as nobody could
provide jobs due to the
Ekim number of businesses
which had closed down.
During 1920′s America,
the country had entered a Many people remained
golden age of prosperity. homeless and jobless, until
The stock market was the start of the second
climbing and many people world war which resulted in
believed the economy would a surge of jobs due to
continue to develop and weapons manufacturing so
prosper. Due to the the united states was able
prosperity and economic to fight against its enemies.
stability of the time, hardly This is the most widely
any people noticed small believed reason of the wall
and subtle signs of failures street crash, but many
and issues in the stock conspiracy theories exist
market. The federal which believe other reasons
reserve in the US kept led to it such as the high
prices low, so many people ranking officials within
irresponsibly decided to banks sold their shares on
invest to make a high purpose to force a
amount of money in a short recession and buy out the
amount of time. Banks also smaller banks to have more
irresponsibly invested in control over the market.
businesses. Many people had taken loans from
banks.
What was life like in the Great Depression?
When the economy first showed signs of crumbling,
many panicked, and decided to sell their shares back, Jack
house prices increased, and banks started to recall
loans. The first signs were when many industries When the Great Depression Hit, money became very
started to overproduce goods and services which hard to come by, manual labour was required to earn
were unnecessary. First, smaller businesses started even a slight amount of money and almost every able
to go bankrupt as they spent more on producing then man in the country had to toil to get a salary.
was needed. This wasted a lot of money. People
Many american men and boys lost most of
started to lose their investments, so panicked as I
their possessions and money due to the
have stated above.
great depression, All around the country people had
The next stage of the depression was the main to pack their bags and look for places to work. For
reason for poverty. As many people panicked, the average american man, this was on a ranch
everybody rushed to sell their shares. So many goods where they earned next to nothing and couldn’t
were produced, nobody purchased the shares, so afford to buy a place of their own.
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3. Of Mice and Men - Novel Study - Research Project, YEAR 10 - JANUARY 2012
Most ranch workers earned 50 dollars a month and Legal Rights
ended up spending it on liquor or at a Brothel this
was because many men were separated from their
families because they couldn’t support them During the early history of the United States, a man
financially. virtually owned his wife and children as he did his
material possessions. If a poor man chose to send
The Initial emotions of People in the depression was his children to the poorhouse, the mother was legally
literally depression, unhappiness and boredom. defenseless to object. Some communities, however,
People were depressed because of how bad their life modified the common law to allow women to act as
had turned out. lawyers in the courts, to sue for property, and to own
property in their own names if their husbands
Unhappiness because of the state of them and their agreed. Most women got the right to vote in 1920.
families. You were still not allowed to vote is you were black,
Boredom because getting up, working on a farm, whatever your sex.
getting money and moving onto a different ranch
became a routine, never changing. Marriage
Evidently life was very hard for an american man, and
also for women, many women resorted to
prostitution in order to earn money, From 1930s to By the 1930’s most single women worked for a living
1940s the use of brothels by men in america was until they were married and there was a trend for
bigger than in any other period. The social status of women to continue working after marriage. The
people changed dramatically in this period too, Its number of married women going out to work
was very hard to come by an upper class person in increased during the 1930s because many women
society and the working class people were trying to keep their families going. Some people
were everywhere. objected to married women working, because they
thought that there were not enough jobs. Many
school boards for instance refused to hire married
women teachers. But in spite of this, the number of
WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN AMERICA
working married women increased steadily
Angus throughout the 1930’s.
It was still a widely held assumption that the man
should be the head of the household, and many
Through most of history women have had fewer legal women preferred it that way.
rights and career opportunities than men. Wifehood
and motherhood were regarded as women’s things
they were best at and what they are meant to do. In
the 20th century, however, women in most nations
won the right to vote and increased their educational
and job opportunities. Perhaps most important, they
were then considered a bigger part of society,
because they proved themselves good at most
occupations.
The weaker sex?
Women were long considered naturally weaker than
men, and unable to perform work in muscular or
intellectual jobs. It was thought they were more
suitable to things like; domestic chores, childcare and
perhaps nursing. Women were relegated to the
home and to the caring professions leaving;
labouring, high profile jobs and the professions to
men. This ignored the fact that having children and
doing tasks such as milking cows and washing
clothes also required sustained labour. (But tests
now suggest that women have a greater tolerance to
pain, and statistics reveal that women live longer and
are more resistant to many diseases.)
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