1. People lost their
life savings when
firms and banks
went bust, and
12 - 15 million men
and women –
one third of
America's
population were
unemployed.
The Wall Street Crash in 1929 led
to the ‘Great Depression’.
People outside a closed bank during
the Great Depression.
From 1929 to 1932,
5000 banks
went out of business.

2. The Dust Bowl
• The increase in farming
activity across the Great
Plains states caused the
precious soil to erode.
• This erosion, together with
a seven-year drought that
began in 1931, turned
once fertile grasslands into
a ‘desert like’ region
known as the Dust Bowl.