Ch1-10 (A)

The Dust Bowl formed during an economic downturn known as the Great Depression; while this crisis is often known to many as simple another stock market crash, the extent of the Depression could not have been, and was not, caused by crash alone. Many crashes had happened in the history of America, causing several depressions, but the Great Depression - the Great exists to emphasize how much worse this depression was. Worsened by not only the Dust Bowl, the Depression deepened when a Federal Reserve Board that thought less money in circulation would result in more careful spending increased interest rates, and when the Hawley-Smoot Tariff act was passed. The tariff was passed to protect farmers (such as the Joads themselves, despite being fictional characters) - the aftermath of World War I meant that Europe began to recover in the area of agriculture, thus reducing demand for U.S. produce. But the tariff was an increase of 8% on not only farm goods, but a multitude (925) of other products. Other countries responded similarly by raising their own tariffs, and so, international trade was quite stunted for America. And this meant that the tariff hurt farmers! The Joads were probably already suffering before that tractor crushed their house. And how ironic that it did; the tractor was originally meant to increase production (which it did) in order to provide farmers with more crops to sell. But with too many crops, the competitive pricing that followed meant lower profits overall.






Source: Liberty, Equality, Power. A History of the American People. 6th edition.

It is a book.