Zusammenfassung der Ressource
Social and
Historical Context
- Life and times of John
Steinbeck
- Was born in Salinas, California 1902
- Came from a wealthy family
- Was interested in the lives of farm labourers
- Spent time working with them
- Used the experience that he
gained to write his books
- Wrote a number of novels
based on his experiences
- Awarded the Nobel prize for literature in 1962
- Died in 1968
- The Wall Street Crash
- Led to the great depression
- Large numbers of investors
sold their shares
- Made people nervous
- 24th October 1929
- 12.8 million shares were sold
- Known as Black Thursday
- 28th October 1929
- Wall street stock market crashed
- 16 million shares were sold on the 29th
- Unemployed rose to 13 million
- People lived in primitive
unsafe conditions
- The Great Depression
- Started on 29th October
- Millions of dollars were lost
- Crippled the country from 1930-1936
- Food shortages began
- Unemployed couldn't pay for rent
- Ended up in shanty towns
- Called 'Homerville's'
- In some places, farmers had too many crops
- Prices steadily dropped
- Weren't enough people to buy them
- The dustbowl
- The drought of 1930
- Caused by little rainfall and high winds
- Struck from 1934 - 1937
- High winds picked up loose soil
- Created black dust clouds
- Killed up to 60% of the cattle
- Made farming basically impossible
- Lasted 8 years
- Migrant workers - 1920 & 1930
- Life became hard during
the Great Depression
- Crops wouldn't sell for as much
- Many migrated to California
- Thought there would be free land there
- Couldn't find work in California
- Set up big towns in Valleys
- made of cardboard and metal
- Sought out work as ranch hands
- Became ill
- Harsh living
conditions
- Lucky to find work as ranch hands
- Got a place to stay, food was provided
- Stuck together when in work
- Can be seen in OMAM when the men agree
to cover up how Curley's hand got hurt.
- The role of women - 1930's
- Seen as housewives
- Jobs being to cook and
clean for the hosuehold
- Had jobs in factories
- Didn't get credit for
the work they did
- Education
- Had to have a full education to be
equal to a man who only graduated
from elementary school
- Women weren't equal to men
- Mostly had low paying jobs
- Would work long hard hours but only got
a fraction of what the men got paid
- Segregation and
racism - early 1900's
- Nearly impossible for
blacks to challenge
racism in the south
- Ku Klux Klan
- After WW1 members
reached over 100,000
- Lynching
- In 1919, 70 blacks were lynched
- 10 were ex-soldiers
- A riot was caused in Chicago
- A black entered a white only beach
- Showed racism wasn't
combined to the south
- Black Americans were too scared to
rise up against white racism
- Voting
- Millions of black votes didn't
affect the result
- They were a minority party
- Southern states made it difficult for blacks to register as voters
- Demanded residential or
educational qualifications before
blacks was allowed to vote
- Blacks formed the majority of Mississippi and Louisiana
- Couldn't gain political control in the areas
- The Ku Klux Klan intimidated blacks
that tried to register as voters.
- Roosevelt
- Was sympathetic to the blacks
- Didn't do anything
- Afraid of losing support from the southern states
- Recognition
- A few blacks tried to gain recognition
- Little success
- Party's remained weak and divided
- Needed to unite