As both books note, while around 400,000 people migrated to the West during the Great Depression, only about 16,000 of those were from the Dust Bowl. The majority were families and transients from the Midwest and Great Plains. In the midst of the launching of various New Deal programs to aid both farmers and the unemployed, what made the people move to the western states? How was their situation better or worse than those people who stayed in the Dust Bowl?

Over the last two weeks, we have read about the despair and hardship experienced by those who stayed in the areas hardest hit by the Dust Bowl and the efforts of the New Deal to address their suffering. How would you describe those that stayed in the high plains during Dust Bowl? How does reading these individual stories compare with your previous larger understanding of the hardship experienced by American during the Great Depression? 

  Social Studies/History    Virtual Book Club    Dust Bowl    Great Depression  

In the midst of the Depression in 1933, Eleanor Roosevelt wrote a book titled It's Up to the Women. Thinking more broadly, what exactly was "up to the women" during the Depression? What new roles and tasks did women assume, both inside and outside of the home, to support their families and American families in general?

This blog post from the American Folklife Center got me thinking about oral histories and other materials in the Center's collections that could enrich the study of the Great Depression in surprising ways: To Brie or Not to Brie: National Cheese Curd Day. So many of the discussions here in the Bookmarks! group have centered on agriculture and its history and importance during the Depression years that the blog post made me wonder how familiar anyone might be with the American Folklife Center's agricultural history materials. 

The post itself is a delight to read. Did you know that Season 6 of the Center’s America Works podcast is entirely focused on food? Have you ever eaten Tillamook cheese from Oregon? Or goat cheese made by descendants of Italian immigrants near Pueblo, Colorado? This blog post covers these "artisanal" cheese makers and more. 

Joe Vasile talks with Paola Tavarelli about how he makes hard goat cheese. David Alan Taylor, photographer. June 30, 1990. Italian Americans in the West Project collection (AFC 1989/022), American Folklife Center, Library of Congress.

If you'd like to find local connections while learning about the Great Depression and the role of food in that period (or the lack of food), you might try exploring the resources of the American Folklife Center. I particularly like their Story Maps, and you might also find local connections in the Library's Research Guides, especially the state guides.

Or you might simply enjoy browsing through the American Folklife Center's blog posts, whether they're about cheese or not, or even the Great Depression period.

I have been in Italy for nearly a month, and in the next few days, I hope to walk through the streets of Pienza, where the waft of pecorino cheese comes out of many an artisanal shop! (It tastes better than it smells.)

  Social Studies/History    Foodways    American Folklife Center    Oral History   

In previous chapters, we read about the nation and federal government's general philosophy that prevented any nationalized efforts to address hunger, poverty, and general human suffering. In our recent readings, we see how the Great Depression along with the environmental impacts of drought and dust storms were creating such dire circumstances that forced leaders to reevaluate these philosophies. How were circumstances creating such dire need? What stuck out to you in these chapters that really underlined how bad things were in the country? 

Worst Hard Times - chapters 9-10 & A Square Meal - chapters 5-6

  Social Studies/History    Virtual Book Club    Dust Bowl    Great Depression  

How did urban and rural populations experience Depression food shortages differently?

How did the fall of agricultural prices for farmers change the way people in the Great Plains grew food?

In the opening chapters of each book, we get a sense of what life was like in the first decades of the 20th century. How was life changing for Americans during this time? Is it changing for everyone? What elements of those changes do you see leading to the challenges of the 1930s and the Depression years? 

  Social Studies/History    Great Depression    Dust Bowl    Virtual Book Club  

In most families, stories have been passed down about how families coped with the challenges of the Great Depression. What stories have been passed down in your family? What piques your interest about this time period and what do you hope to learn as we read and discuss these two books? 

  Social Studies/History    Virtual Book Club    Great Depression    Dust Bowl  

In the final section of this book, we cover more recent history up to current events. How does Ansary use the same three core themes: environment, tools, and language/communication to make sense of our modern world? 

  Social Studies/History    Virtual Book Club  

Section V of of The Invention of Yesterday is titled "The Machine." What is “the machine” and how does it impact gender roles and the social organization of individuals?

  Social Studies/History    Virtual Book Club