How many starved to death in the great depression

Movies offered a way for Americans to think of better times, and people were willing to pay twenty-five cents for a chance to escape, at least for a few hours. Even more than escapism, other films at the close of the decade reflected on the sense of community and family values that Americans struggled to maintain throughout the entire Depression.

Their journey leads them to realize that they need to join a larger social movement—communism—dedicated to bettering the lives of all people. Another trope was that of the hard-working everyman against greedy banks and corporations. This was perhaps best portrayed in the movies of Frank Capra, whose Mr.

Smith Goes to Washington was emblematic of his work. In this film, Jimmy Stewart plays a legislator sent to Washington to finish out the term of a deceased senator. In this film, Jimmy Stewart runs a family-owned savings and loan, which at one point faces a bank run similar to those seen in — In the end, community support helps Stewart retain his business and home against the unscrupulous actions of a wealthy banker who sought to bring ruin to his family.

Flying Down to Rio was the first motion picture to feature the immensely popular dance duo of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.

The pair would go on to star in nine more Hollywood musicals throughout the s and s. Finally, there was a great deal of pure escapism in the popular culture of the Depression. People wanted to forget their worries and enjoy the madcap antics of the Marx Brothers, the youthful charm of Shirley Temple, the dazzling dances of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, or the comforting morals of the Andy Hardy series.

The Hardy series—nine films in all, produced by MGM from to —starred Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, and all followed the adventures of a small-town judge and his son. No matter what the challenge, it was never so big that it could not be solved with a musical production put on by the neighborhood kids, bringing together friends and family members in a warm display of community values. All of these movies reinforced traditional American values, which suffered during these hard times, in part due to declining marriage and birth rates, and increased domestic violence.

At the same time, however, they reflected an increased interest in sex and sexuality. While the birth rate was dropping, surveys in Fortune magazine in — found that two-thirds of college students favored birth control, and that 50 percent of men and 25 percent of women admitted to premarital sex, continuing a trend among younger Americans that had begun to emerge in the s. Contraceptive sales soared during the decade, and again, culture reflected this shift.

Blonde bombshell Mae West was famous for her sexual innuendoes, and her flirtatious persona was hugely popular, although it got her banned on radio broadcasts throughout the Midwest. Whether West or Garland, Chaplin or Stewart, American film continued to be a barometer of American values, and their challenges, through the decade.

The Great Depression affected huge segments of the American population—sixty million people by one estimate. But certain groups were hit harder than the rest. African Americans faced discrimination in finding employment, as white workers sought even low-wage jobs like housecleaning. Southern blacks moved away from their farms as crop prices failed, migrating en masse to Northern cities, which had little to offer them.

Rural Americans were also badly hit. Some farmers tried to remain and buy up more land as neighbors went broke; others simply fled their failed farms and moved away, often to the large-scale migrant farms found in California, to search for a better life that few ever found.

There was very little in the way of public assistance to help the poor. While private charities did what they could, the scale of the problem was too large for them to have any lasting effects. People learned to survive as best they could by sending their children out to beg, sharing clothing, and scrounging wood to feed the furnace.

Those who could afford it turned to motion pictures for escape. Movies and books during the Great Depression reflected the shift in American cultural norms, away from rugged individualism toward a more community-based lifestyle. Scottsboro Boys a reference to the infamous trial in Scottsboro, Alabama in , where nine African American boys were falsely accused of raping two white women and sentenced to death; the extreme injustice of the trial, particularly given the age of the boys and the inadequacy of the testimony against them, garnered national and international attention.

Skip to main content. Brother, Can You Spare a Dime? The Great Depression, Search for:. He subsequently selected over seventy interviews to air on a radio show that was based in Chicago. Visit Studs Terkel: Conversations with America to listen to those interviews, during which participants reflect on their personal hardships as well as on national events during the Great Depression.

Read Voices from Scottsboro for the perspectives of both participants and spectators in the Scottsboro case, from the initial trial to the moment, in , when one of the women sued for slander.

Click through to see what choices you would make and where that would take you. Caroline Henderson on the Dust Bowl Now we are facing a fourth year of failure. There can be no wheat for us in in spite of all our careful and expensive work in preparing ground, sowing and re-sowing our allocated acreage. Native grass pastures are permanently damaged, in many cases hopelessly ruined, smothered under by drifted sand. Fences are buried under banks of thistles and hard packed earth or undermined by the eroding action of the wind and lying flat on the ground.

Less traveled roads are impassable, covered deep under by sand or the finer silt-like loam. Orchards, groves and hedge-rows cultivated for many years with patient care are dead or dying. Impossible it seems not to grieve that the work of hands should prove so perishable.

They used to tell me I was building a dream, and so I followed the mob When there was earth to plow or guns to bear, I was always there, right on the job They used to tell me I was building a dream, with peace and glory ahead Why should I be standing in line, just waiting for bread?

Section Summary The Great Depression affected huge segments of the American population—sixty million people by one estimate. Review Question What did the popular movies of the Depression reveal about American values at that time? In Arkansas, families were found inhabiting caves.

In Oakland, California, whole families lived in sewer pipes. Vagrancy shot up as many families were evicted from their homes for nonpayment of rent. The Southern Pacific Railroad boasted that it threw , vagrants off its trains in Free public flophouses and missions in Los Angeles provided beds for , of the uprooted.

To save money, families neglected medical and dental care. Many families sought to cope by planting gardens, canning food, buying used bread, and using cardboard and cotton for shoe soles. Despite a steep decline in food prices, many families did without milk or meat. In New York City, milk consumption declined by a million gallons a day. President Herbert Hoover declared, "Nobody is actually starving.

The hoboes are better fed than they have ever been. The Depression had a powerful impact on families. The caveat is that this study is based on urban populations, and certain rural populations may have experienced more severe poverty. But the overall message is that deaths due to starvation would have been rare throughout this period. My admittedly very ballpark extrapolation from these data is that we might find a rate in the thousands per year before the New Deal agencies got up and running:.

Importantly, this study shows that economic crisis does not guarantee a mortality crisis, but instead reinforces the notion that what crucially matters is how governments respond and whether protective social and public health policies are in place both during and in advance of economic shocks.

I'm afraid you have to understand that at the time period we are talking about it was especially hard to get independent information and government- backed information is almost guaranteed to be doctored for political, social and other reasons. If you remember a phrase from 'Doctor Zhivago' movie: ' It's natural for the governments to deny and hide any information about any adverse events.

In addition, it may be easily claimed that no one died of starvation because unless somebody is locked up and deprived ANY food he can easily die of pneumonia, for example, which his body won't be able to handle because it's too weak because of poor nutrition and which otherwise it could handle.

In that sense, unless the statistics were properly doctored, it could be very interesting to compare it with the statistics for the previous and later years. Sign up to join this community.

The best answers are voted up and rise to the top. Stack Overflow for Teams — Collaborate and share knowledge with a private group. Create a free Team What is Teams? Learn more. How many people in the US starved to death during the Great Depression?

Ask Question. Asked 7 years, 7 months ago. Active 4 years, 11 months ago. Viewed k times. Source: this and this So, I would be very interested to know how many people died of malnutrition or lack of calories, if any estimate is possible.

Improve this question. Razie Mah Razie Mah 5, 2 2 gold badges 31 31 silver badges 53 53 bronze badges. Just goes to show you shouldn't believe what a paper called "Truth" says! The more things seem to change the more they stay the same it seems.

I have some family experience with this. My great-grandfather was a doctor in rural Oklahoma during the depression. My grandmother used to help him in the office, and told me stories of parents bringing in "sick" kids, and being given "prescriptions" for food , fillable at the drugstore downstairs. This was in SE Oklahoma, which was not even the part hardest-hit by the dust-bowl.

Sounds like a diversionary claim to try and offset the Ukraninan Famines in the 30s when Stalin intentionally starved about 10 million. I wouldn't believe that Russian source. They have an axe to grind. Show 8 more comments. Active Oldest Votes. In his Horizon programme Eat, Fast and Live Longer he claims From to , in the darkest years of the great depression when people were eating far less, life expectancy increased by 6 years.

Improve this answer. This is the result of an amazing decline in TB the Red Death.