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Dust Bowl
A severe drought and ecological disaster that struck the Great Plains of the USA and Canada during the 1930s. Years of overfarming had removed native grasses that anchored topsoil. When drought arrived, massive dust storms stripped away the soil, destroying crops and forcing hundreds of thousands of farming families to abandon their land. The worst years were 1934 and 1936. Many displaced families, known as 'Okies', migrated west to California seeking work.
Economic depression
A period of prolonged high unemployment and low investment in economic activity, more severe and longer-lasting than a recession.
New Deal
A series of programmes, public works projects, financial reforms, and regulations introduced by President Franklin D. Roosevelt between 1933 and 1939 in response to the Great Depression. Key agencies included the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), the Works Progress Administration (WPA), the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA), and the Social Security Administration. The New Deal expanded the federal government's role in the economy and established the principle that government bore responsibility for citizens' basic welfare.