Dust Bowl

 

The Dust Bowl was a period in the 1930's where a series of sever dust storms covered certain regions in America, causing crops to die, and a failure in the productivity in farms. During this time there was also a huge drought that covered these same regions, making it nearly impossible to grow food. The winds were so strong, that any dirt that was no rooted to the ground, or filled with moisture, were thrown into the air, where they sometimes blackened the skies.




 

Map of where the dust bowl affected
 

A dust cloud about to completely cover a whole house

 

 

A car completely covered under dust

 

Dust clouds higher than telephone poles about to cover a whole town

 

A family living in a rundown shack in the middle of an open field

 

This is a picture of a girl who lives in a rundown shack, by Dorothy Lange 

 

Cinderella Man

In the 1930s, the Great Depression hit America hard, and affected everybody in severe, and unimaginable ways. A perfect example of how the great depression affected families is the movie Cinderella man. In this motion picture, a fathers job is a professional fighter. In the year 1928, on November 30th, he won a fight and made $8,860 in a single night. Shortly after the fight he returns home, to which the scene cuts out on a picture of his cabinet, which on top had large sums of cash, and lots of jewelry. Then the movie goes a few years into the future. In 1933, Jimmy, the father, is now extremely poor. Fights only pay $30, and that's if he wins. His family lives in a one bedroom, with 4 children. Unable to pay for electricity, which is only a $19 bill, he has to send his kids away. All of his money that he had saved from past fights where he won thousands was invested into a company in the stock market that had took a really bad downfall, causing him to lose all of his money. At the time, many people lived in Hoover Ville's, which were shacks inside parks all huddled together, where the poorest of the poor lived. The way these people lived was on desperation, and minimal amounts of hope.


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The separation of the upper and lower class was also growing. If you were rich, you got richer. If you were poor, you became poorer. In the movie, Jimmy's manager was also a close friend of his. one thing that this man did was always appear to be well off, which we later found out that he had to sell everything he had in order to keep his image. The effects on the social classes was a major influence on the later progressions of men and women in these classes. In all of these troubles, men became very stressed out and drank more than usual. This drove families and fiends apart, making everyone have enemies. Men also had to compete for jobs each day. The social aspect of life was also extremely affected by this, and forever influenced by what happened.

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The New Deal

The New Deal was when a whole group of organizations started a whole bunch of programs, that started with laws passed by Roosevelt to start the three R's. These three R's were Relief, Recovery, and Reform, all to appeal to each class of person, lower, middle, and higher.

FDIC - Federal Deposit Insurance Commission: The purpose of this organization was to have the banks of America ensure stability, and it gave men and women insurance on their  money if the bank was robbed up to 250,000 dollars.

SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission): The purpose of this organization was to regulation the stock market, and prevent corruption.

TVA - Tennessee Valley Authority: The purpose of this organization was to provide electricity, navigation, flood control, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley.

SSA - Social Security Act: The purpose of this organization was to provide a social security system for Americans.

NLRA - National Labor Relations Board: The purpose of this was to control elections and labor unions in the united states.

WPA - Works Progress Administration: The purpose of this organization was to provide unemployed people with jobs doing public services.

 FLSA - Fair Labor Standards Act: The purpose of this organization was  to guarantee workers certain privileges, such as the maximum of the 44 hour work week, and the time and a half rule.

Prohibition

This is a picture of a speakeasy Source

During the Prohibition, the sale and distribution of alcohol became illegal in the united states. Even though it became illegal to drink alcohol, many people still found ways to get it, and still indulged in its effects. This made everyone a criminal. People began to think of the idea of a law as something unworthy of their respect, and they began to lose respect for all laws in general. Overall this made society somewhat of a more dangerous place. The Following Photo of bootleggers, men who would smuggle alcohol into the us to distribute illegally. Bootleggers would sell their booze to people in special places known as speakeasies. Overall we learned from the prohibition that the best thing to do rather than to get rid of alcohol, was to make sure it was properly moderated.

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USS Maine

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The U.S.S. Maine was a American war ship that had blown up from unknown causes, most likely a fire near the ammunition room. When the ship blew up the U.S. believed that this was done by Spain as an act of war, which was a major stepping stone in this war.


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In this photo of the ship, it shows the ship after the explosion


 

WW1

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In this image, soldiers are hiding underneath and overturned carriage in search of safety. I feel as though this picture helps us to better our understanding of WW1 because it show the desperation of many of the soldiers. In the war many people died, and I think that in this image, I feel like if these two soldiers had to resort to this, then how many other people were forced to find safety.

JFK

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In this photo it shows JFK winding up to throw the first pitch of a baseball game. I feel as though this image shows how people considered JFK to be just another person as well as their president. This photo allows you to see how people interacted with him in the 1960's, and how much of a normal person he was, instead of being just a president. By being able to interact with the people and share their views, i feel as though he made himself the best president he could possibly be.