Art and Literature of the Great Depression

Literature


Many of America's most distinguished writers produced works of fiction during the thirties.  The list includes such names as F. Scott Fitzgerald,Ernest Hemingway, John Dos Passos, and Thornton Wilder.  Some of the novels of this period explored what was happening in the country during the Great Depression.


Art & Architecture


The arts, like everything else in the 30's, were dominated by the Great Depression. In the 1930's this discipline was supported by government programs such as the Public Works of Art Project and later the Federal Art Project. The artists employed by these projects (over 5,000 at one period of time) chose themes based on American culture and history. The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, was able to complete his Mount Rushmore Memorial with funds supplied by the WPA. Other "starving artists" were able to survive the hard times by painting murals on the lobby walls of government buildings. There were some of these individuals who became artists of note, such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning.

The WPA

On May 6, 1935, the Works Progress Administration (W.P.A.) was created to help provide economic relief to the citizens of the United States who were suffering through the Great Depression. The WPA was the largest New Deal agency, employing millions to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large art, drama, media, and literacy projects. Almost every community in the United States had a park, bridge or school constructed by the agency, which especially benefited rural and Western populations. By 1943, the total amount spent was over $11 billion.

The Dust Bowl

During the early 1930s, children wore dust masks to and from school, women hung wet sheets over windows in a futile attempt to stop the dirt, farmers watched helplessly as their crops blew away. The Dust Bowl lasted for a decade and the number of dust storms is increasing in 1932. 5 million people left the dust bowl and more than 7,000 people die.

Hoover Vs. Roosevelt

Hoover and Roosevelt had very different ideas on how the Depression should be handled. Hoover was a Republican and  Roosevelt was a Democrat. Hoover was brought up in a poor family, and worked almost his entire life. Roosevelt had been born into a very rich family; He grew up with education at Harvard, had his own pony and sailboat, and had everything basically taken care of for him in his childhood by his mother. Roosevelt won because he promised lower taxes and argued that this would give the American people more spending money which would help to economy improve.

The Cause of the Great Depression

In the 1929s, the Stock Market Crash was one of the causes of the Great Depression. Two months after the original crash in October, stockholders had lost more than $40 billion dollars. In 1930s over 9,000 banks failed. Bank deposits were uninsured and thus as banks failed people simply lost their savings. As people lost their jobs, they were unable to keep up with paying for items they had bought through installment plans and their items were repossessed.