After the stock market crash of 1929, the once thriving American economy came to a halt. This period became to be known as the Great Depression which affected a very large part of the population from the Eastern to the Western United States for over a decade. While many homes were becoming modernized with electricity and appliances during the 1920’s this period hit many homes with the electricity going out and kerosene lamps going up. Work was hard to find and at best, many families had to learn how to stretch a dollar. Banks failed, businesses closed, and the most basic needs became hard to meet. Families who lost their homes were forced to pack all their belongings and seek refuge in shanty towns, also known as Hoovervilles, which were made of scraps of metal, wood, cardboard, and whatever materials they could find to create shelter. Especially hard hit from the Great Depression were the farmers who suffered as they produced far more than they could sell and lost their farms to foreclosures. The farmers of the Great Plains also suffered notably as a result of a devastating drought which brought about withered crops and suffered high winds which came to be known as the Dust Bowl. The Dust Bowlers fled with all of their possessions and family members for California believing they would find work, only to discover scarce opportunities for low wage paying jobs and ridicule from resident Californians. When President Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933 New Deal programs were put in to place in order to provide relief for the needy. The New Deal programs provided job opportunities for the unemployed along with social and economic aid. Many of the reforms and programs enacted during Roosevelt’s presidency are still in place in order to prevent another economic disaster.
