CALIFORNIA, 1937
DOROTHEA LANGE/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS
These men – on a long trek to Los Angeles – are just two of the 2.5 million migrants forced to travel west in search of a better life. The Great Depression of the 1930s saw the worst economic slump the Western world had ever seen. Unemployment skyrocketed and people were pushed into poverty. The US was hit particularly hard when dust storms and drought ravaged its plains – destroying crops and making families homeless.