Thimble Summer

Thimble Summer is set during the 1930s and the Great Depression, a period when rural America and many farming families were plagued by economic hardship. Following the 1929 stock market crash, which had worldwide effects, the United States experienced high unemployment, deflation, a banking system crisis, and cutbacks in industrial production that resulted in widespread poverty and unhoused people. Already struggling against industrialization and the modernization of farming, rural families and sharecroppers were particularly affected by the Great Depression. A decrease in commodity prices, reduced demand, and increased debts led to a collapse in the agricultural economy. Εnvironmental disasters such as the Dust Bowl exacerbated the crisis. This severe drought, combined with dust storms that plagued the Great Plains from 1930 to approximately 1936, decimated crops and drained the land. Thousands of families were forced to abandon their farms, initiating a migration wave.

To ameliorate the effects of the Great Depression, President Franklin D. Roosevelt issued the New Deal, a series of federal laws including banking reforms, emergency relief, and work relief programs, as well as agricultural programs. The New Deal lasted between 1933 and 1939 and managed to help the United States recover from the devastating effects of the financial crisis.