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History > America, English America, USA, World > USA

 

20th century > 1929 > Crash

 

1930s - early 40s > Great Depression

 

 

 

 

newspaper:

The Daily Mail, continental edition

date:

October 25, 1929

news event:

The American stock market collapses.

http://www.bl.uk/learning/images/front%20page/large8018.html

http://www.bl.uk/learning/histcitizen/fpage/finance/prnfinance.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1940

 

John Ford's The Grapes of Wrath

 

 

The Grapes of Wrath

is a 1940 American drama film

directed by John Ford.

 

It was based on John Steinbeck's

1939 Pulitzer Prize-winning

novel of the same name.

 

The screenplay was written

by Nunnally Johnson

and the executive producer

was Darryl F. Zanuck.

 

The film tells the story of the Joads,

an Oklahoma family,

who, after losing their farm

during the Great Depression  in the 1930s,

become migrant workers

and end up in California.

 

The motion picture

details their arduous journey

across the United States

as they travel to California

in search of work and opportunities

for the family members.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grapes_of_Wrath_(film)

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
The_Grapes_of_Wrath_(film)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The FSA photographs,

along with Pare Lorentz's

government-sponsored

documentaries

The Plow That Broke the Plains (1936)

and The River (1937),

with their images of drought, flood,

and other rural calamities,

helped Gregg Toland

(the cinematographer)

and John Ford (the director)

give authenticity

to their 1940 screen adaptation

of Steinbeck's

The Grapes of Wrath.

 

(Indeed, the poetic narration

and visual beauty of the Lorentz films

actually influenced Steinbeck

as he was writing the original novel.)

 

The Ford film, in turn,

fixed the iconography of the thirties

for future generations.

 

We can see its long afterlife

in films like Hal Ashby's

1976 biography of Woody Guthrie,

Bound for Glory.

https://www.npr.org/templates/
story/story.php?storyId=113057611 - September 22, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/templates/
story/story.php?storyId=113057611 - September 22, 2009

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Secular stagnation was an idea first conceived

in the aftermath of the Great Depression.

 

Photograph: New York Times Co.

Getty Images

 

Weak economic recovery

was down to flawed policies, not secular stagnation

 

Lesson to be learned from 2008 financial crisis

is that the challenge was – and is - political

G

Wed 29 Aug 2018    16.19 BST

Last modified on Thu 30 Aug 2018    07.57 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2018/aug/29/
weak-economic-recovery-was-down-to-flawed-policies-not-secular-stagnation

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Migrant mother Florence Thompson & children

photographed by Dorothea Lange.

 

Photograph: Dorothea Lange

 

A Vision Shared:

the photographers who captured the Great Depression

G

Tue 24 Jul 2018    11.00 BST

Last modified on Tue 24 Jul 2018    11.01 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jul/24/
a-vision-shared-book-review-great-depression-photographers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Migrant family, Texas. 1936.

 

Photograph: Dorothea Lange

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

 

In Search of the American Family

NYT

Nov. 20, 2017

https://lens.blogs.nytimes.com/2017/11/20/
in-search-of-the-american-family

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Migratory farmers (pea pickers)

changing their flat tire along route US 101.

 

Location: Santa Maria, CA, US

 

Date taken: February 1936

 

Photograph: Dorothea Lange

 

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=e539d3eba55d1e0d

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dust bowl drought victims

(migratory farm workers)

at ramshackle building,

meant to be permanent home,

north of Shafter.

 

Location: CA, US

 

Date taken: February 1936

 

Photograph: Dorothea Lange

 

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=12c8291d312a21b8 - broken link

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A booking photograph of a vagrant in the early 1930s

 

Real life film noir:

crime scenes from the LAPD – in pictures

 

Warning:

this gallery contains images

some people may find distressing

 

Crime scene photographs

shot by Los Angeles police officers

in the line of duty between 1925 and the 1970s

are on show at the city’s Lucie Foundation.

More than 80 images are on display,

drawn from the thousands discovered

in a warehouse in 2000

by the fototeka Gallery.

G

Tue 16 Jul 2019    10.28 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2019/jul/16/
real-life-film-noir-scenes-from-the-lapd-in-pictures


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

America

from the Great Depression to WW2

 

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Dust Bowl or the Dirty Thirties

 

 

 

 

Buried machinery in barn lot

in Dallas, South Dakota,

United States during the Dust Bowl,

an agricultural, ecological, and economic disaster

in the Great Plains region of North America in 1936

 

Date: 13 May 1936

(1936-05-13)

 

Source: United States Department of Agriculture;

Image Number: 00di0971 (original link now dead)

Wikipedia

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/Dust_Bowl_-_Dallas%2C_South_Dakota_1936.jpg
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Portrait of Dust Bowl farmer John Barnett and his family.

 

Location: OK, US

 

Date taken: 1942

 

Photograph: Alfred Eisenstaedt

 

Life Images

http://images.google.com/hosted/life/l?imgurl=65a23429ac4addd7

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A period of severe dust storms

causing major ecological

and agricultural damage

to American and Canadian prairie lands

from 1930 to 1936

(in some areas until 1940)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dust_Bowl

 

 

 

drought, economic depression

and devastating dust storms

created the perfect conditions

for migration in the 1930s,

away from the southern Plains states

and towards the west,

 

(...)
 

 

Facing millions of dollars

of crop losses per day in the Dust Bowl,

millions of residents from Oklahoma, Texas,

Arkansas and Missouri

had no choice but to move or starve.

 

They packed their bags,

with many traveling west to California.

 

The state of California resisted,

citing the 1933 Indigent Act

to turn back poor migrants

along the state's major points of entry.

 

John Steinbeck's novel

The Grapes of Wrath,  written in 1939,

depicted this vilification of climate migrants

through its story of a poor family of tenants

driven out of the Dust Bowl

and mistreated in California.

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/20/
659074873/what-migrants-displaced-by-the-dust-bowl-and-climate-events-can-teach-us

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2024/10/24/
nx-s1-5159988/migrant-migration-united-states-dust-bowl

 

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/20/
659074873/what-migrants-displaced-by-the-dust-bowl-and-climate-events-
can-teach-us

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

World’s Highest Standard of Living

by Margaret Bourke-White, 1937.

 

Photograph:

Courtesy of the estate of Margaret Bourke-White

 

'Families were devastated':

looking back on the Great Depression via art

In a powerful new exhibition,

photography and folk art are used

to provide potentially relevant lessons

on how to deal with economic hardship

G

Wed 18 Sep 2019    06.01 BST

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/sep/18/
great-depression-photography-art-exhibition-chicago

 

Related

 

First published in Life Magazine’s February 1937 issue,

World’s Highest Standard of Living

became instantly recognizable

to many Americans during the Great Depression

for its starkly ironic juxtaposition of an idealized America

alongside the grimmer aspects of everyday reality.

 

Often thought to be an unemployment line,

the photo was actually taken in Louisville

after the flooding of the Ohio River,

which killed almost 400 people

and displaced about a million more across four states.

https://www.artic.edu/articles/467/
worlds-highest-standard-of-living

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1935

 

Works Progress Administration    WPA

 

The Works Progress Administration

(WPA; renamed in 1939

as the Work Projects Administration)

was an American New Deal agency,

employing millions of job-seekers

 (mostly unskilled men)

to carry out public works projects,

including the construction

of public buildings and roads.

 

It was established on May 6, 1935,

by Executive Order 7034.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_Progress_Administration

 

 

 

By the time the agency

closed up shop in 1943,

it had put 8.5 million Americans to work

— a sizable chunk of the workforce

in a country less than half

as populous as it is today.

 

Most of that direct employment

was organized and done by the WPA,

an icon of the "bold persistent

experimentation"

FDR said would characterize

his approach to recovery.

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/04/
826909516/in-the-1930s-works-program-spelled-hope-for-millions-of-jobless-americans

 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Works_Progress_Administration

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/04/
826909516/in-the-1930s-
works-program-spelled-hope-for-millions-of-jobless-americans

 

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/july-25/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1933

 

National Industrial Recovery Act    NIRA

 

Following the enactment

of the the National Industrial Recovery Act (NIRA),

the National Recovery Administration (NRA)

was established on June 16, 1933

in an effort by President Franklin D. Roosevelt

to assist the nation's economic recovery

during the Great Depression.

 

The passage of NIRA ushered in

a unique experiment

in U.S. economic history -

the NIRA sanctioned, supported,

and in some cases,

enforced an alliance of industries.

 

The National Recovery Administration (NRA),

created by a separate executive order,

was put into operation soon

after the final approval of the act.

 

The administration was empowered

to make voluntary agreements

dealing with hours of work,

rates of pay, and the fixing of prices.

 

Patriotic appeals were made to the public,

and firms were asked

to display the Blue Eagle,

an emblem signifying NRA participation.

https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/
todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=616

 

 

https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/
index.html?dod-date=616

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt   1882-1945

 

32nd president of the United States   1933-1945

 

Great Depression    New Deal    1930's

 

 

Franklin Delano Roosevelt,

the 32nd president of the United States,

held that title longer than any man in history

and dealt, during his time,

with some of the greatest problems

internal or external,

which had faced the nation.

 

The internal crisis which existed

at the time of his first inauguration,

on March 4, 1933,

when the nation’s economic system

was faltering

and its financial organism

paralyzed by fear,

was followed in his third term

by the global war during which

he and Winston Churchill

emerged as leader

of the English-speaking world.

 

The years in between

were packed with swift and drastic

social and economic changes

to make Mr. Roosevelt

the most controversial figure

in American history.

 

Beloved by millions, hated,

admired, feared and scorned

by countless adversaries,

he did much to shape the future

of the nation he headed

and the world.

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/r/franklin_delano_roosevelt/index.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Title : Roosevelt or reaction?

Wage earners - your vote is your answer

Date : 1936

Subjects : Democratic Party

United States

1936

General Election

President

Franklin D. Roosevelt

Folder : 1936 - Presidential Elections - Democratic Party

UCLA Online Campaign Literature Archive

http://digital.library.ucla.edu/campaign/librarian?VIEWPDF=1936_006_016_a

http://digital.library.ucla.edu/campaign/librarian?ITEMID=1936_006_016&SIZE=Medium

http://digital.library.ucla.edu/campaign/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/
new-deal-1930s 

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/person/
franklin-delano-roosevelt

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/04/
826909516/in-the-1930s-
works-program-spelled-hope-for-millions-of-jobless-americans

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Wall Street Crash    1929

 

The Great Depression / The New Deal    1930s

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/the-great-depression

https://www.nytimes.com/topic/subject/new-deal-1930s

https://archive.nytimes.com/www.nytimes.com/library/financial/index-1929-crash.html

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/films/dustbowl/

https://www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/fsa/ 

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/picturing_the_century/galleries/greatdep.html  

https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=1029

https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=526

https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=705

https://www.archives.gov/historical-docs/todays-doc/index.html?dod-date=616

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3959005.stm

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2020/07/21/
893672249/lives-of-the-great-depression

 

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/04/
826909516/in-the-1930s-works-program-spelled-hope-for-millions-of-jobless-americans

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/sep/18/
great-depression-photography-art-exhibition-chicago

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2018/jul/24/
a-vision-shared-book-review-great-depression-photographers

 

 

 

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2015/05/26/
409738018/hunger-and-humanity-how-dorothea-lange-taught-us-to-see

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/picture/2014/apr/14/
john-steinbeck-dorothea-lange-photography

 

 

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/01/
movies/deanna-durbin-1930s-star-of-universal-pictures-dies-at-91.html

 

 

 

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/26/business/26myers.html

 

 

 

 

https://www.npr.org/2004/10/30/
4134779/reviewing-the-1929-stock-market-crash

 

 

 

 

https://www.theguardian.com/news/1929/oct/26/
mainsection.fromthearchive

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

1929 Crash and The Great Depression

 

Herbert Hoover   1874-1964

 

Thirty-first President of the United States

1929-1933


 

 

 

[Herbert Hoover,

head-and-shoulders portrait,

facing slightly right]

 

Underwood & Underwood, Washington.

 

CREATED/PUBLISHED [1928(?)]

 

REPRODUCTION NUMBER

LC-USZ62-24155 DLC (b&w film copy neg.)

LC-USZ61-296 DLC (b&w film copy neg.)

DIGITAL ID

(b&w film copy neg.) cph 3a25105

(b&w film copy neg.) cph 3a02089

Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

Washington, D.C. 20540 USA

http://memory.loc.gov/service/pnp/cph/3a20000/3a25000/3a25100/3a25105v.jpg
http://lcweb2.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?ammem/presp:@field(NUMBER+@band(cph+3a02089))

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"NEW YORK:

Swamped under an avalanche of selling orders

from every part of the country and from abroad

which had been accumulating over the week-end,

the stock market today continued to sink,

though at a less rapid rate than Saturday.

 

Before the tumble became a crash, however,

a rally in the final half-hour saved prices

from closing on the lowest levels

and gave rise to hopes

that the market had touched rock bottom.

 

The wild rush to sell put the ticker more than an hour

behind the actual transactions nearly all day,

and at the close it was still seventy-two minutes behind.

 

The late rally, however, brought prices back slightly,

and at the close most stocks showed two to five points

above their lowest levels in the course of the session."

 

International Herald Tribune, 1929

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/21/opinion/OLD22.html

 

 

 

 

"NEW YORK:

In a day replete with bankers' meetings,

conferences of Stock Exchange officials,

meetings of brokers

and publication of opinions from high and low

in the world of finance, business and all else,

stock prices broke to new low levels

in a volume of trading

far in excess of anything hitherto seen.

 

In five hours' trading,

16,419,000 shares changed hands,

in comparison with 12,894,600

which made the previous record day

last Thursday [Oct. 24].

 

Sales on the Curb market

added another 7,096,300 shares

to the day's total.

 

Today [Oct. 29]

came the first failure of the present reaction.

 

It was insignificant

compared with the failures

during the panics of the past,

but it was seized upon by a hysterical public

as an occasion for fresh worry.

 

The failure was

that of the firm of John J. Bell and Company,

members of the Curb Exchange,

whose officials announced its suspension

through the inability to meet its engagements.

Its obligations, it was said, were small.

 

Today's transactions broke all records,

even those established in Thursday's collapse.

 

The first three and a half hours

saw 12,652,000 shares change hands,

or within 250,000 of the record

for a full five-hour session,

 

established during Thursday's debacle."

 

International Herald Tribune    1929

http://www.iht.com/articles/2004/10/29/opinion/old30.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

https://www.loc.gov/item/today-in-history/july-08/

 

https://www.archives.gov/exhibits/eyewitness/html.php?section=11

 

https://www.mediapart.fr/journal/culture-idees/280720/
dans-le-chaos-des-annees-1930-
les-combattants-de-lemancipation-34-paul-mattick-penseur-de-la-crise

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

John Cohen    1932-2019

 

founding member

of the New Lost City Ramblers,

the New York-based string band

at the forefront of the old-time music

revival of the 1950s and ’60s

 

(...)

 

Although best known as a performer,

Mr. Cohen was also

an accomplished photographer,

filmmaker and musicologist.

 

But virtually all his artistic pursuits

were centered on a single goal:

 

revitalizing the traditional music

of the rural American South

and building a movement around it.

 

Established in 1958,

the Ramblers consisted of Mr. Cohen

on banjo, guitar and vocals;

 

the folklorist Mike Seeger,

also on vocals, as well as fiddle

and other instruments;

 

and Tom Paley,

who left the trio in 1962,

on banjo, guitar and vocals.

 

Together

the three men introduced

a generation of young urbanites

to the work of Depression-era

rural performers like Dock Boggs,

Elizabeth Cotten

and Blind Alfred Reed.

 

(Tracy Schwarz,

Mr. Paley’s replacement,

played fiddle and guitar

and sang with the group

from 1962 until the early 1970s.)

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/
arts/music/john-cohen-dead.html

 

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/17/
arts/music/john-cohen-dead.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Related > Anglonautes > Arts > Photographers >

20th century > USA

 

Margaret Bourke-White   1904-1971

 

Dorothea Lange   1895-1965

 

 

 

 

 

Related > Anglonautes > Arts > Books >

20th century > USA

 

John Steinbeck   1902-1968

 

 

 

 

 

Related > Anglonautes > Arts > Music > Folk >

20th century > USA

 

Johnny Cash    1932-2003

 

 

 

 

 

Related > Anglonautes > Vocapedia >

Economy, Weather, Refugees

 

stock markets

 

 

downturn, recession, depression

 

 

economy, cycles, business, markets, prices, taxes >

down

 

 

water shortage, drought > USA

 

 

conflicts, wars, climate, poverty >

asylum seekers, displaced people,

migrants, refugees

worldwide

 

 

 

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