Hoovervilles

E57048

Hoovervilles were makeshift shantytowns built by homeless and unemployed people across the United States during the Great Depression, symbolizing the era’s severe economic hardship and government inaction.


Statements (50)
Predicate Object
instanceOf historical phenomenon
shantytown
associatedWith Hoover blankets
Hoover flags
Hoover wagons
builtBy homeless people
unemployed workers
characterizedBy lack of sanitation
overcrowding
poverty
declinedBecauseOf New Deal relief programs
World War II economic recovery
developedFrom makeshift shelters
documentedIn contemporary newspapers
oral histories
photographs
emergedDuring Great Depression
foundIn outskirts of cities
public land
riverbanks
urban areas
vacant lots
governedBy informal rules
self-appointed leaders
hasCause economic collapse
mass unemployment
widespread homelessness
hasLanguageOrigin American English
inhabitedBy families
migrants
single men
locatedIn United States
namedAfter Herbert Hoover
namedAs criticism of Herbert Hoover
notableExampleLocation Central Park
Chicago
New York City
Seattle
St. Louis
relatedTo breadlines
soup kitchens
symbolized economic hardship
government inaction
timePeriodEnd late 1930s
timePeriodStart early 1930s
typicalMaterial cardboard
packing crates
scrap wood
tar paper
tin

Referenced by (1)
Subject (surface form when different) Predicate
The Grapes of Wrath
setIn

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