THE SEAMY SIDE OF AMERICAN CAPITALISM IN JOHN STEINBECK'S THE GRAPES OF WRATH

2014 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Fuad Hasyim
Keyword(s):  
Great Depression ◽  
Interdisciplinary Approach ◽  
Social Phenomena ◽  
Grapes Of Wrath ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Library Research ◽  
American Capitalism ◽  
Consumptive Behavior ◽  
Materialistic Values ◽  
The Impact

This article is an attempt to study Steinbeck’s vision of the American system of capitalism during 1930’s as causing the greatest economic crisis in American history. The study particularly observes the growth of materialistic values in this era. The main discussion concerns the dramatic journey of Joad’s family toward California as reflected in The Grapes of Wrath.With an interdisciplinary approach, the study examines the novel to comprehend the author’s view about his social phenomena. This is a kind of qualitative research in which the researcher applied library research on The Grapes of Wrath. The data gathered from bibliographical sources was analyzed and written descriptively to describe the seamy side of capitalism in America.The result of this research shows that material success is not the human’s only orientation in his life. The great depression and tragic life of Oklahoma tenant farmers were viewed by the author as due to the impact of uncontrolled American Capitalism in 1930’s. The seamy sides of American Capitalism such as greed, selfishness, corruption, and consumptive behavior, etc. have been described by the author as source of the extensive destruction among American people.Keywords: capitalism, the great depression, materialism, dehumanization.

Business Enterprise and the Great Depression in Brazil: A Study of Profits and Losses in Textile Manufacturing

1992 ◽  
Vol 66 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-363 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen H. Haber
Keyword(s):  
Great Depression ◽  
Statistical Data ◽  
Previous Literature ◽  
Cotton Textile ◽  
Business Enterprise ◽  
Accounting Data ◽  
Textile Manufacturing ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Impact

This article employs previously unused accounting data and manuscript censuses to determine the impact of the Great Depression on Brazil's most important cotton textile manufacturers. It argues that the Great Depression, when viewed at the level of the individual business enterprise, had far more serious consequences than the previous literature, which relied on aggregate statistical data, suggests. The analysis presented here leads to the conclusion that Brazil's major cotton firms were in serious trouble prior to the 1929 Crash and that they took longer to recover than most other studies of Brazilian industrialization have indicated.

Sāmoa’s Gethsemane (1930)

Tautai ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Patricia O'Brien
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Annual Report ◽  
Moral Character ◽  
League Of Nations ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Business Operations ◽  
The Impact

This chapter explores the immediate aftermath of the Black Saturday Massacre through the experiences of Ta’isi. Though New Zealand forces tried to stop the Mau through exiling Ta’isi and then the killing Tupua Tamasese (which may have been intended or not) the Mau continued to disrupt New Zealand’s rule. The Women’s Mau, in which Rosabel played a prominent role, also came to the fore in 1930. Administrator Allen enraged these women, Ta’isi and Sāmoans generally, when he wrote in the annual report to the League of Nations that these women were of ‘light moral character’. The crisis of the Great Depression began to impact Sāmoa and for Ta’isi personally; his enforced absence from Sāmoa began to bite into his business operations. This chapter explores the New Zealand’s part in continuing attempts to publically damage Ta’isi’s status amongst Sāmoans. It also explores the impact on Ta’isi and the Mau with the death of Sir Māui Pōmare, who had been Samoa’s staunchest supporter.

Redefining the Heartland

2011 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert Wuthnow
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
Republican Party ◽  
Church And State ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Electoral Cycle ◽  
National Economic ◽  
The Impact

This chapter examines how Kansas experienced a long slide from being the “kernel of the country” to becoming a mere outpost far from the centers of national economic and political influence—a shift that was rooted in economic and demographic changes, but was primarily a matter of cultural redefinition. On those rare occasions in the nineteenth century when the Kansas Republican Party lost power, it regrouped and made a comeback in the next electoral cycle. The chapter first considers how the influence of Republicans and Methodists peaked in 1924, a banner year for the Kansas economy, before discussing the consolidation and further expansion of Kansas churches. It then describes the separation of church and state, along with the rise of fundamentalism and the impact of the Great Depression on Kansas churches. It also explores the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 and the emergence of smaller political and religious movements in Kansas.

The Primal Force of the Great Depression

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
John Kenneth Galbraith
Keyword(s):  
Economic Policy ◽  
Classical Tradition ◽  
Great Depression ◽  
The Other ◽  
Vulnerable Groups ◽  
Stock Market Crash ◽  
The Great Depression ◽  
Classical Economic ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

This chapter examines the impact of the Great Depression on classical economic ideas. When the Great Depression struck after the stock market crash of October 1929, economists in the classical tradition such as Joseph Schumpeter and Lionel Robbins chose to do nothing. They argued that the depression must be allowed to run its course. The chapter first considers U.S. economic policy under Franklin D. Roosevelt, focusing on how he addressed three visible features of the depression: deflation in prices, unemployment, and the hardship depression suffered by especially vulnerable groups. It also discusses the views of two scholars who belonged to the group known as the Roosevelt Brains Trust (later the Brain Trust), Rexford Guy Tugwell and Adolf A. Berle Jr. Finally, it explores how depression and price deflation led to two efforts to raise prices, one through the National Recovery Act and the other through agriculture.

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