Unit 3 Lesson 4: Work and Culture Flashcards
During the Second New Deal Congress passed the Emergency Relief Appropriation Act, which involved spending a staggering $4.8 billion. Where was majority of this money being invested?
Almost one-third of that was invested in the Works Progress Administration (WPA).
Role of the Works Progress Administration (WPA) between 1935 and 1943
Between 1935 and 1943, the WPA provided employment relief to more than eight million workers, or about 20 percent of the country’s workforce.
What was the purpose of the WPA?
The WPA was a relief agency that created employment for millions of Americans.
Impact of the WPA
This benefited many communities and allowed people to stay employed. As workers received paychecks, more money circulated throughout the economy.
What happened under the WPA
Under the WPA, the government hired people to do a wide variety of jobs. Laborers increased and improved the country’s infrastructure.
How did the WPA improve the nation’s infrastructure?
Some of the jobs created by the WPA involved laborers building structures and facilities such as hospitals, schools, and roads.
Among other things, the WPA funded the construction of what
Among other things, the WPA funded the construction of more than 2,500 hospitals, 5,900 schools, and 570,000 miles of road.
What id One division of the WPA, the Federal Arts Project do
the Federal Arts Project, created jobs in the arts.
How did the Federal Arts Project work
Artists received commissions through the WPA to create work in their chosen fields. A commission is a request from a client for a specific piece of art. In this case, the government was the client.
What were some thing Federal Arts Project funded
Illustrators were given commissions to create items such as posters promoting the national parks or other public works. Some posters encouraged good health and safety habits or advertised community events. Painters were hired to create art for public buildings, such as courthouses and train stations.
(the Tedral Arts project) Impact of the WPA
. As a work relief program, the WPA allowed artists to make a living during a difficult time. The beautification of public spaces was a bonus.
The WPA created more than 40,000 jobs for people who had been working in theater, visual arts, music, and writing before the Depression.
Visual artists weren’t the only people who received jobs through the Federal Arts Project. The government also employed writers under the
Federal Writers’ Project
How did things work under the Federal Writers’ Project
Many of these writers received commissions to record oral histories from people around the country. A writer interviewed a subject and then produced a transcript.
Impact of the Federal Writers’ Project.
In this way, everyday people who may have been forgotten found a voice. As part of the country’s archives today, these oral histories help us understand how the Great Depression affected a wide range of people.
How many oral hisories were recored in the Federal Writers’ Project
Overall, the Federal Writers’ Project recorded more than 10,000 oral histories. Some are from formerly enslaved people. Their recollections of their time in slavery have been preserved as a result of this program.
Just as WPA writers preserved people’s stories through interviews, photographers used their cameras to document the time. Some of the most well-known photographs of the Depression came from a surprising source:
the Farm Services Administration (FSA)
What was the FSA’s role
The FSA’s role was helping poor agricultural workers.
Why did the FSA take so many pictures
To defend their policies from critics, FSA officials dispatched photographers to capture images of rural life. They ended up taking almost 80,000 photographs.
Photojournalism
. Photojournalism is the field of showing news through photographs. A photojournalist’s main goal is documenting events as they happen. The photographer hopes the photos tell vivid stories without needing text.
Two famous photojournalists, Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, worked for the FSA. ELaborate, what was the impact of their photos
They took many striking photographs of people suffering from the effects of the Depression. The photos are important from a historical perspective, but they also had immediate effects. People in power were motivated to make changes when they saw the published images.
Who’s John Steinbeck
Author John Steinbeck’s work is often associated with the Depression
What are Steinbeck’s chararters like
Steinbeck wrote some of his most well-known stories and novels in the 1930s, and his characters were usually struggling to find or keep work or escape financial troubles.
Steinbeck’s novel The Grapes of Wrath
Published in 1939, it is perhaps his most famous work. The book tells the story of an Oklahoma family who abandon their failing farm to look for work in California.
How did the Works Progress Administration (WPA) help Americans during the Great Depression?
The WPA was a relief agency that provided employment in many different types of work for millions of Americans.
How does John Steinbeck’s work reflect American society in the 1930s?
John Steinbeck wrote several influential stories and novels about the struggles of rural workers. The characters are concerned with finding and keeping work and making a living, common concerns for the majority of Americans during the 1930s.
Why do you think that Dorothea Lange’s photographs are often included in texts about the Great Depression?
Dorothea Lange took many photographs of people during the Depression. She spent time in communities that were struggling, and her photos capture the horrible conditions suffered by many Americans at the time. The photographs clearly show not only the details of everyday life but also the strong emotions people felt.
