Hard Times
Californians who lived through the 1920s and 1930s must have felt as though they were on a roller coaster. In a dizzying cycle of boom and bust, a decade of spectacular prosperity was followed by the worst economic collapse in the state's history. Ramshackle encampments, such as Pipe City in Oakland, filled with forlorn unemployed workers and their families. The crash of the Macon, a helium-filled dirigible, mirrored the collapsing fortunes of Californians everywhere. The hard times of the thirties contributed to a disturbing resurgence of nativism; authorities shipped thousands of Mexican deportees across the border.
Meanwhile, thousands of new Dust Bowl refugees from the heartland of America streamed into California seeking a better life. Their coming inspired John Steinbeck to write The Grapes of Wrath (1939) and Dorothea Lange to compile an epic photographic record. The newcomers created in California an "Okie subculture," a way of life still flourishing today.
Discontented workers in the thirties went on the offensive. Farmworkers and farm owners locked horns in yet another round of total engagement. The San Francisco General Strike of 1934 paralyzed the bay area and attracted national attention.