The Dust Bowl OdysseyThe Dust Storms began on May 9, 1934. Where did the dust come from? - 1930’s drought - Heavy demand on agricultural crops caused farmers to over farm - Many uprooted the grass to exploit the soil underneath

The Dust Bowl stretched northward from the Texas panhandle, New Mexico, and western Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, and the Dakotas.

Stories vs. Actuality

John Steinbeck and Dorothea Lange put a face on the tragedy of America during the Great Depression.

John Steinbeck: - wrote The Grapes of Wrath a near-biblical parable of the south western emigrants and their journey during the Dust Bowl Depression. exaggerated and biased

Dorothea Lange: - Informed the country through photography staged and exaggerated

The Joad’s trek across the desert to the promised land reminds us of Israel’s lost tribes

The opening in Oklahoma, in which the Joad’s are driven from their land; their odyssey across the desert on Route 66; and their journey through California in a desperate search for work

The Joad’s reach the land of milk and honey but the abundance of the land is off limits to the Okies. California treats them like vermin, mobs attack them, labor agents cheat them, strike breakers threaten them, work at living wage is hard to find

“The Migrant Mother”What themes do you get from the pictures on pg. 294?How representative is she of the depression?

Specific versus Collective

• By 1890 punch cards were being used to record data, and an electric tabulating machine was used to process those cards made it possible to accumulate more complex and varied information

• By analyzing the evidence we the readers get a clearer understanding of how relevant the Joads actually were to the Dust Bowl refugees

• Nearly a quarter million people migrated to California in the 1920s, same after the “dirty thirties”

• The 1940s was the time period where many migrated to California according to the chart on page 298.

To what degree are Steinbeck’s vivid stories and Lange’s wrenching photographs representative of the collective reality they are taken to symbolize?

Steinbeck and Lange both had an intriguing way of captivating their audience with the issue of the Dust Bowl and immigration to California. However, statistics show that the vast population was barely due to the Dust Bowl epidemic– only 2%.

What other factors besides dust were driving people into California?Many farmers lost their jobs couldn’t pay mortgages on their homes - New mechanization; allowed faster and cheaper labor -Over farming depleted the soil

Industry boomed which caused the agricultural economy to declinePeople were trying to farm land that could no longer support them Migrate to California; work availableThose that decided not to move to California stayed and rented land and shared crops.

• During the 1920s migrants drifted to the West because California farmers faced a shortage of agricultural labor working opportunity for middle class .

Roosevelt and the New Deal

Part of his plan was the Agricultural Adjustment Act for relief, recovery, and reform, reduce production of crops Offered farmers a cash subsidy to take land out of production The AAA provided funds for 20% of the people-- government really helped the agricultural crisis, however much of the money didn’t go to the southwestReduced acreage over 50%

WPA –Work Progress Administration

The Road:

How does the fact that only 43% percent of migrants from the southwest were farmers change the ideas that Steinbeck and historians have tried to portray?

-desperately poor were only one part of the migrants-only 43% of migrants were farmers-95% of migrants were white-took he Joads weeks to get to California-overly dramatized-Californians didn’t want the state to be taken over by job seekers-tried to discourage migrants

California:

- -California was better off than the rest of the nation during the Great Depression-farms grew over 100 different crops

-less susceptible to over production-industrial workers received higher wages-many migrants had relatives in California-helped them get started-newcomers wrote home and made it seem attractive for their relatives

-Urban areas had more job opportunities; Los Angeles was one of the most heavily populated areas were people migrated to.

- By 1940s 83% of men found work

no picking in December to March -many lived in shantytowns where poverty starvation, and disease was rampant-in 1937 floods wiped out villages leaving many homeless-two years later rains returned and the war brought prosperity

The New Migrants-workers were 43% white, 21% Mexican, 17% European, 8% Filipino, 7% Japanese

-Chinese and Japanese introduced new crops

-Chinese Exclusion Act ban Chinese in the U.S.

-immigration acts in the 1920’s banned Asian and European immigrants, forcing growers to look for Mexican workers-Cultural prejudices made cooperation between ethnic groups difficult

Okies were the victims not the victimizers

HOW DO HISTORIANS USE NUMBERS TO TELL THE STORY OF THE PAST?

HOW REFLECTIVE IS THE JOAD FAMILY OF THE DUSTBOWL MIGRATION?

In order to fully comprehend the reasons and factors that caused the

migration during this time, one needs to look at the facts.

The statistics about the Dust Bowl during the Great Depression is just as

incriminating as the stories told by John Steinbeck…

Work CitedDavidson, James and Mark Lytle. “Dust Bowl Odyssey.” After the

Fact: The Art of Historical Detection. New York: McGraw Hill, 2005. 289-314.