John Steinbeck, 1902-68.
Literary Influences
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HISTORICAL CONTEXT
The Great Depression
1929-39 In October, 1929, the stock market crashed and destroyed the savings and earnings of several million investors across the U.S.*. This caused general mistrust of standardized methods of saving and earning and lead to decreased consumer spending. Without spending companies began to fail and, unable to keep paying employees, the number of unemployed Americans rose to 15 million by 1933 (History.net). Over half of the country's banks had failed, taking in their demise the savings and earnings of every patron, rich or poor. Franklin D.Roosevelt's New Deal focused on Relief, Recovery, and Reform; with the creation of programs like the Resettlement Act, later the FSA, the presidency attempted to relieve effects of the Depression by relocating struggling families to places where they could find work in agriculture (History.com). However, these places were no more than tent cities provisioned with a single source of running water: rarely were employment and sustainable wages a guarantee for the thousands of destitute American families. |