The Great Depression

This week we touched on the subject of The Great Depression. It started in 1929 and lasted for about a decade. There were many reasons why America fell into this depression and it wasn’t just from one single event. The one percent of Americans had the wealth equivalent to the bottom 42 percent. The poor families could not afford the consumer goods that were overstocking the market, some products were like the Sears catalog from the “Roaring 1920s” module the other week. These products had no demand and were being overproduced causing the market to get negatively affected. This also causes a huge loss of jobs throughout America.

The case study we look at for this period of time was “Migrant Mother” and other photographs that were taken during this time. We also listened to recordings of people that lived during The Great Depression. This week has changed my way of thinking about primary sources such as photos because of the “Migrant Mother” photo we looked at during class. This photo was taken under the Farm Security Administration and was free in the public domain to see. The main reason for this photo to be published was for propaganda during the time because of the agricultural depression in the country. It was not to capture the actual history behind the photo. When we look at the history behind the photo, the woman was not actually a pea picker like the media labeled it as. It was also a family of 5, they did not include the oldest daughter in the photo to get the best capture that Dorothea Lange wanted to show. There were many other photos like this one that tried to capture an image that Americans would sympathize with so they would give money to these areas in need.

This case study made me think about how historians have to dig deeper into every account of the primary and secondary sources before coming to a clear conclusion on the history behind them. I think of what historical perspective historians take on a primary source and what historians are trying to find in these sources. It would be to better understand the way of living during this decade of depression I would think. The Great Depression topic is filled with primary and secondary sources at the touch of our fingertips but we have to dig deeper into the sources to find the whole story instead of the juicy title that might be blinding the eye from the perspective needed to be taken.