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Key Themes
Agriculture —Much of the legislation passed in response to the Great De-
pression centered around farming, a fi eld that employed almost one-fi ft h of
the workforce. Farmers were already struggling to break even in a fl ooded
international market aft er World War I, and worsening drought aff ected
farmers across the Midwest, causing many families to uproot and migrate
to California. Government initiatives like the Agricultural Adjustment
Act off ered mortgage assistance for farmers, promoted parity, and off ered
monetary compensation for reduced crop acreage to eliminate price-
depressing surpluses.
Arts and Culture —Desperate to put people to work, President Roos-
evelt created a special arts component of the Works Progress Administra-
tion (WPA); the Federal Art Project, the Federal Music Project, the Federal
Th eatre Project, and the Federal Writers’ Project generated initiatives and
commissioned works in all areas of the arts. Farm Security Administration
photographer Dorothea Lange captured now-famous images of farming
families during the Dust Bowl. From the private sector, novelists like John
Steinbeck and Erskine Caldwell captured the plight of migrant workers and
families aff ected by poverty.
Banking and Economics —An unstable banking system and the stock
market crash of 1929 catapulted the United States into the Great Depres-
sion. Th e Roosevelt administration addressed the crisis immediately by de-
claring a bank holiday, allowing only secure banks to reopen and off ering
aid to others. Subsequent economic reforms like the Glass-Steagall Act and
the establishment of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation and the
Securities and Exchange Commission helped stabilize the country’s fi nan-
cial system, prevented future bank failures, and helped curb the unbridled
speculation of the 1920s that had destabilized the economy. Roosevelt also
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