If we concentrate
exclusively on the behavior of the poor in their daily lives, the simplest answer to your
question is that they acted the same as they did in the 1910s and largely the same as they did
in the 1930s too. That is to say the lower economic classes of the time relied on family and
valued it, they relied on the church and maintained their faith in God, even in the hard times.
They shunned the ways of the city and the "sinful" excesses of flappers and
bootleggers. They kept a stellar work ethic intact, putting in long hours at hard labor with
little compensation, if they were lucky enough to have a job or own a farm. They did not blame
others for their situation in life.
The book The Worst Hard Time
by Timothy Egan about the Dust Bowl life in Oklahoma sums up perfectly how these
people lived and acted.
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