A Rambling Mama

            The Great Depression is one of the most challenging periods in American economic history and had national and international influences and origins. In the years following the Great War (WWI) and into the 1920s, the “U.S. economy boomed.” [1] However, tranquility was not on the cards for long as the government interceded in 1928 when the U.S. Federal Reserve “raised interest rates” to “combat inflation.” [2] The timing could not have been worse; Europe was still in a period of rebuilding and establishing new governments for many countries. Ultimately, the burden of the tremendous amount of resources and money loaned by the U.S. to Europe became too much, and many countries began to default on those loans. The result was a slow down of the economy leading to stagnation and the “deflation” of the U.S. economy.             To understand the causes of the Great Depression, we can look to note...

              The Progressive Era was a period of extreme progress and change within the United States. The 1890s and the upheaval of the financial depression of that decade had changed the course of American politics and policies that reverberates even more than a century later. During this time, there was a constant arrival of immigrants to the U.S. that transformed America’s identity and society. Immigrants’ flocked into urban cities throughout the country, swelling the city limits beyond capacity in places but filling important industrial and manufacturing positions, as well as other opportunities in services and communities in desperate need of labor.             Labor wages in the early 1900s had been in a “slow ascent,” wages ranging from $4-7 a week at the turn of the century, which resulted in insufficient “nutritional levels” of workers owing to the “abominable...

Amy M. White, M.A.               Homesteading in the best of times was a challenging prospect on the American Plains, but the “attraction” for settlers was the prospect of carving out a life and farm from nothing. [1] To turn the arid frontier grasslands into a home, working farm, and business was a long process. It is said that homesteader women “suffered” the most on the plains, often living their lives under immense pressure and isolation. [2] Without the communities, families, and socialization women had known in their homelands or back east, moving to the plains brought loneliness and difficulties unknown to them before. Men typically left their wives on the homestead while going to town, usually at a considerable distance, to buy supplies and enjoy saloons and shopping. Women remained on the homestead to care for the children, farm animals, gardening, and household.        ...