Great Depression

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  10/6/2020
  

  John Steinbeck, Bard of the American Worker (Review)

  Hailing him as a “major figure in American literature,” Souder further claims Steinbeck has “given the world several books that would last forever.”

• 
• SOURCE: Philadelphia Inquirer
  8/31/2020
  

  Millions of Young Men Toiled in FDR’s ’Tree Army’ to Help End the Great Depression. Could it Work Again?

  Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley of Oregon are introducing legislation for a revived version of the New Deal-Era Civilian Conservation Corps, seeking to create jobs in forestry, parks, and land conservation. 

• 
• SOURCE: LitHub
  7/29/2020
  

  Once Upon a Time, When America Paid Its Writers

  In Jason Boog’s new book, "The Deep End," he offers colorful and often grim profiles of nine Depression-era writers and connects their stories to the struggles that writers face today. Even before our current economic crisis, it was a depressingly apt comparison.

• 
• SOURCE: Nursing Clio
  7/21/2020
  

  The Children’s Nutrition and Dental Clinics of Mobile: Public Health, Volunteerism, and the Color Line during the Great Depression

  by Daryn Glassbrook

  The Depression did not create a hunger and malnutrition crisis in the United States. It brought to the fore deep-seated structural weaknesses in our economic, political, and health systems that enabled this crisis to boil over.

• 
• SOURCE: Foreign Affairs
  7/22/2020
  

  A Job Guarantee Costs Far Less Than Unemployment

  The bold policy for not just weathering the crisis, but coming out better.

• 
• 7/12/2020
  

  Re-stabilizing the Middle Class and the Poor: Lessons from the 1930s

  by David Stebenne

  For a long time it seemed as though the 1930s era of high unemployment was a kind of “great exception” in American history, but now it has appeared again, suddenly and unexpectedly, just as it did in the early 1930s. 

• 
• SOURCE: TomDispatch
  5/28/2020
  

  The Great Depression, Coronavirus Style: Crashes, Then and Now

  by Nomi Prins

  Monetary policy responses to the current crisis can't fix either the structural problems that make the economy vulnerable to severe disruption or the virus and public health crisis that underlie that disruption. Governments must choose to take coordinated action on multiple fronts. 

• 
• SOURCE: JSTOR Daily
  5/20/2020
  

  One Parallel for the Coronavirus Crisis? The Great Depression

  Historians Erk Loomis and Michael Goldfield are among an interdisciplinary group of scholars describing the process by which the New Deal transformed American society. 

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  5/19/2020
  

  When the Economy Collapses, Talk Is Cheap—Just Look What Led Up to the Great Depression

  by Robert Dallek

  For American leaders, the Great Depression is as much a lesson in what not to do as it is in what to do.

• 
• SOURCE: New York Times
  5/18/2020
  

  7.7 Million Young People Are Unemployed. We Need a New ‘Tree Army.’

  by Collin O'Mara

  Today, there’s plenty to do for a revitalized conservation corps that would put young Americans back to work.

• 
• SOURCE: Capita
  5/15/2020
  

  Lessons for a Depression: A Conversation with Historian Eric Rauchway

  Historian Eric Rauchway compares the Great Depression and our current pandemic-induced economic decline, Franklin Roosevelt’s democratic principles, and the role of a competent government in preventing authoritarianism. 

• 
• SOURCE: The Atlantic
  5/17/2020
  

  The Lessons of the Great Depression

  by Lizabeth Cohen

  The larger lesson the New Deal offers is that recovery is a complex and painful process that requires the participation of many, not directives from a few. And that, ultimately, we’re all in this together.

• 
• 5/17/2020
  

  What Happened to My Future: The Pivotal Years of 1914, 1929, and 2020

  by Walter G. Moss

  There aren't many comparisons to 2020 as a year when illusions of normalcy and prosperity were shattered. 

• 
• SOURCE: Marketplace
  5/13/2020
  

  What Postwar America Can Tell Us About Today’s Record Unemployment

  Economic historians Caroline Fohlin and Gary Richardson discuss the nature of government support for employment to preserve World War II's economic gains. 

• 
• SOURCE: New York Magazine
  5/4/2020
  

  Could Trump Go the Way of Herbert Hoover?

  Will the ignominious political fate of Herbert Hoover await Donald Trump when voters deliver a verdict on his tumultuous presidency in November?

• 
• 5/3/2020
  

  Youth Crises Past and Present: Learning from the New Deal and Eleanor Roosevelt

  by Robert Cohen

  It is time to start demanding a successor to the National Youth Administration to meet the educational and economic needs of students--and to ask who in Washington will carry the torch that Eleanor Roosevelt raised during the Depression decade as the champion of low income youth.    

• 
• SOURCE: WBUR
  4/9/2020
  

  What The Depression-Era Works Progress Administration Can Teach Us About The Arts During A Crisis

  During the Great Depression, art became a part of people's everyday lives, notes art historian Jody Patterson.

• 
• SOURCE: TIME
  4/27/2020
  

  If the Great Depression Is Any Indication, Things Won’t Just Go Back to ‘Normal’ After the Coronavirus Pandemic Ends

  by James C. Cobb

  New Deal programs had difficulty returning the United States to "normal" life because FDR had difficulty persuading many Americans that the federal government was supporting their economic security. This failure makes a comprehensive response to COVID-19 less politically feasible.

• 
• SOURCE: Time
  4/24/2020
  

  As Coronavirus Magnifies America’s Housing Crisis, FDR's New Deal Could Offer a Roadmap Forward

  by Jill Watts

  The coronavirus crisis has exposed one of America's greatest needs: adequate and safe housing.

• 
• SOURCE: Associated Press
  4/25/2020
  

  Out of Pandemic Crisis, What Could a New New Deal Look Like?

  The COVID-19 crisis has served up a rare opportunity to galvanize Americans for change.