The Hungry Years: A Narrative History of the Great Depression in America

An entire library of books exists on various aspects of the Depression in America. It is therefore a daunting challenge to build something fresh and worthwhile using the well-worn facts and interpretations that form the bedrock of this literature. Montana State University's Watkins (Righteous Pilgrim, etc.) rises to the occasion, artfully assembling carefully selected anecdotes to deliver a brilliant, ground-level portrait of America as it struggled through the long and painful decade of the 1930s. Watkins makes good use of obscure memoirs, oral histories and local press clippings, taking readers deep into the lives of men and women (sharecroppers, auto workers, lumberjacks, students) as they navigated the catastrophe. People had various techniques for coping with the crisis. Some of the techniques were ingenious, many more were pitiful and some were downright evil. Watkins documents the search for scapegoats, especially the rise of virulent anti-Semitism propounded most notably by radio demagogue Father Charles Coughlin. And he elegantly portrays the radicalization of the masses and the rise of the American Communist Party. Exhaustive, eloquent and engaging, Watkins's graceful narrative simultaneously paints a panoramic picture of America and delves, with great understanding and sympathy, into the details of individual lives. No one with an interest in 20th-century American history can afford to miss it. (Oct.)