People lost their life savings when firms and banks went bust, and 12 - 15 million

men and women –

one third of America's

population were

unemployed.

The Wall Street Crash in 1929 led to the ‘Great Depression’.

People outside a closed bank during the Great Depression.

From 1929 to 1932,

5000 banks went out of business.

The Dust Bowl

• The increase in farming activity across the Great Plains states caused the precious soil to erode.

• This erosion, together with a seven-year drought that began in 1931, turned once fertile grasslands into a ‘desert like’ region known as the Dust Bowl.