The Great Depression Exposed In Donald Worster's Dust Bowl

Superior Essays
The Great Depression was a long ten year struggle for America. Times were rough from the New York City streets to the Great Plains. Banks began to close on an everyday basis. In Donald Worsters book "Dust Bowl" he writes about the Great Plains and how the people have struggled through out "the dirty thirties". In Chapter 9 "Unsettled Ground" George Taton Believes that if people would have just gave up trying to plant seed in dust that mother nature would have fixed the Plains in half the time it had took. The 1930s were a hard time on America that should be remembered so our country does not make the mistake again.

"Dust Bowl" is a well written book and easy to follow, although I found it quite boring. The book itself was not awfully long in length but I found it to drag on forever repeating the same facts repeatedly through out the book. I would get to parts of the book and have to reread them because I had fallen asleep while reading. I am actually quite interested in this time in history and I learned a lot from this book. I had no idea of how tremendously the great depression had effected the country as a whole. I also didn’t realize how long it actually took the country to recover from the depression. I did find it interesting that how much the government had to help get the country running better again, and how much money they had to spend doing it. Chapter eight "Hard Times in The Panhandle" is one of the most interesting chapters in the book. Boise City Delegates reported five million in emergency federal aid to be requested for the panhandle. So many people in debt as far past their heads that in a time were money was hard to come by those debts may never be payed in full as interest would keep inflating the price. Many people lost their farms and watched them go up for bids as there was nothing they could do about it. Finally a little help came from the government in 1933 known as the Farm Credit Administration passed this made loans at a modest rate of five percent interest. I feel even at five percent it would still be hard on the farmers to pay back when they had no money for what they needed already. A work relief program became in effect and promoted by Henry Hopkins help many people out during this time. Theses jobs were payed by the government to help them get back to working. Theses jobs were mainly for unskilled workers that may not have any experience in anything but farming. These jobs included things like spreading gravel, grading roads and for the women sewing. Work relief helped many Americans get back on their feet again. In Chapter eight it also talks about how the teachers were treated during this time. Teachers usually made around 700 dollars a year, I feel was a decent amount of money for this area. The problem came when the school district was not able to pay the teachers until
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She states "Those who left never gained by it; those that stayed gained." I find this statement no entirely true for all the people of the plains. Some people during this era could not get out of the deep debt that they was in. Does this make these people cowards to not stay in the plains? People did what they thought was best for their families well being. Helen was also asked if she thought that the Dust Bowl may come back. She responded no that we have more technology now and we simply know how to farm better. I also disagree with her reply, I think that another depression could happen someday. The weather patterns change quite frequently and drought happens about every 20 years in the plains. If this world became so over populated, farmers would need to grow more food to keep up with demand. This world is all about making a profit. If people think that a disaster like the Dust Bowl could not occur again and they just keep growing more and more a great disaster could possible occur in

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