Altering of the American Social Fabric Essay Example

employment.

These programs consisted of the Civilian Conservation Corps. which was designed to provide hand outs as needed. Another program provided government jobs partly to achieve development goals, but primarily to provide employment for the otherwise unemployment, destitute and hopeless. This was FDRs New Deal. The self respect of many was suffering because if you couldn’t support your family, and were forced to live in a shack in a so called “Hooverville”, it was difficult to look in the mirror and feel pride. An extreme tension in the nation’s social fabric was created when the march in 1932 on Washington D. C. occurred.

This was a march of impoverished war veterans who were demanding the government to immediately pay them their war bonuses that were promised by Congress in 1926, and scheduled for payment in 1945. At this time of economic crisis, the government saw them as a national threat, even though they were usually viewed as highly respectable veterans. They were acknowledged as revolutionaries and communists so their camp site in Washington was destroyed by federal troops, and 2 veterans were killed. This major occurrence showed the impact of the depression on the American social fabric.

The Great Depression brought the entire country to an all new low. Families struggled with money and, were most of the time, forced to leave their home. Charities and private sources, such as the civilian Conservation Corps, helped those in need but destroyed a sense of self pride. Tensions in the nation’s social fabric added to the demise of a national unity. The time of the Great Depression altered the social fabric of the United States in numerous ways and all that

occurred during this period of strife made history as we know it today.