The Great Depression in America: A Cultural Encyclopedia

Abstract

Jukes reviews The Great Depression in America: A Cultural Encyclopedia by William H. Young and Nancy K. Young.

Publisher: Greenwood Press, Westport, CT, 2007, £100, $175.
ISBN: 978 0 313 33520 4

The two-volume Great Depression in America: A Cultural Encyclopedia is different from all other works covering the Depression in American history that lasted from 1929 until the beginning of World War II. The difference is that the work does not examine the Depression from a purely political and historical viewpoint, but looks at the cultural phenomena with a particular emphasis on the impact of the mass media, radio and the movies.

The range of topics is extremely wide - and they cover the trivial to the historically important. But, of course, as we know well, it is often the trivial which can be the most interesting when we look back in history at the lives of ordinary people. I cannot recall reading another book on this period of history which covered chain letters, jigsaw puzzles, marathon dancing, and miniature golf, while, at the same time, covering the politicians and the important political events.

The work begins with an alphabetical list of entries and a thematic guide to related topics (same list in both volumes - always helpful to do this). An introductory essay follows which provides a historical and cultural overview of the period. The encyclopedia has 200 entries from which the reader can gain a sense of American life during the 1930s, from the onset of the Great Depression to the beginnings of World War Two. It is always difficult to give the flavour of a publication of this type through listing some examples of entries, but here are a few: Amos "n" Andy, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, Automobiles, Bing Crosby, F. Scott Fitzgerald, George and Ira Gershwin, Jean Harlow, Roy Rogers, Frank Sinatra, Shirley Temple, Dracula, Gone With the Wind, It Happened One Night, Superman, Walt Disney, Flash Gordon, Judy Garland, the Lindbergh Kidnapping, the Marx Brothers, Miniature Golf, Pulp Magazines, Bonnie and Clyde, the Chicago's World Fair, Walt Disney, Duke Ellington, and the Grand Ole Opry.

It can be seen from the above list that the encyclopedia looks at popular culture, i.e. those activities, events, institutions, and individuals that constitute the routines of normal, everyday life. Usefully, whenever monetary figures appear, they are quoted first in their original amounts followed by their present-day equivalent in brackets. Each entry in the encyclopedia is covered in great detail. For example the entry on Soft Drinks covers more than four pages, followed by a section of Selected Reading. As an example of the detail of coverage, the section on soft drinks describes the make-up of soft drinks, and explains that the word "soft" comes from the absence of alcohol with people referring intoxicating drinks as "hard" beverages. The section relates soft drinks to Prohibition, that period in America (1919-1933) when the sale of alcohol was illegal and Al Capone, and fellow gangsters flourished - well covered in other sections of the encyclopedia - and shows how the sales of soft drinks rose in the first years of prohibition; the "invention" of Coca Cola and its marketing techniques; as well as Coca Cola and Pepsi Cola battles.

The movie, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs , released just before Christmas 1937, is another entry which it would have been easy to have covered briefly. But, no, this is another area of detailed coverage - one's admiration for this book grows the more one reads its detail. Thus the reader learns that in Snow White Disney used what has come to be called a multi-playing camera effect which created the illusion of depth on a flat screen. This was done by placing several layers of different drawings, done on glass, on top of one another, allowing each to move independently of one another. Thus stars could orbit the heavens, seemingly in the distance and behind objects in the foreground. A forest could consist of many trees, some in the immediate foreground, others at a midpoint between them, with yet more distant trees in the background. As a character passes these woods, each row, or layer of forest shifts, allowing the camera to see these various trees at differing angles, just as in real life. Developed in the mid-1930's the multi-playing camera made its first appearance in The Old Mill a 1937 short cartoon in the long-running (1929-1939) Silly Symphony series. The success of The Old Mill encouraged the studio to utilise the technology in Snow White , its first extended use. Hopefully this example will give an idea of the type of coverage in each entry.

But it would be wrong to assume that the encyclopedia only looks at social and recreational activities of the period, or is full of unnecessary trivia. It does not avoid the serious issues of the time such as Race Relations and Stereotyping. It covers the historical and political events and personalities of the period, and in this category, another example of the depth of coverage and attention to detail is Franklin Delano Roosevelt (1882-1945), who guided the country through the Great Depression. There are seven pages devoted to him, and his wife Eleanor (1984-1962) has five pages. FDR offered his citizens a New Deal, assuring them that they had "nothing to fear but fear itself". The New Deal itself has over five pages and includes a lengthy chart listing some of the agencies that provided immediate relief, along with others that established reform policies and procedures affecting Americans long after the end of the 1930's. The chart lists the date and programme and a description, e.g. 1935 - DRS Drought Relief Service - bought cattle from designated counties and gave those fit for human consumption to the Federal Surplus Relief Corporation to be used in food distribution to families nationwide. In the section on the New Deal there is a photograph of Frances Perkins (1882-1962) Secretary of Labor, the first woman to hold a US Cabinet post and also a political cartoon of the time lampooning the New Deal.

The whole work is well illustrated with photographs, film posters, scenes from films, various personalities and many other interesting pictures. The quality of these, in terms of reproduction, is a little variable - from adequate to very good with just a few very grey and dark-looking which might have been better omitted. However, overall, this is a very minor criticism, and some probably will not notice it at all. In addition, the book is well set out, and pleasing to handle. The font size is just right, nice use of wide margins and white space - an overall pleasingly laid out work.

The set ends with a section on selected resources. These sources include internet websites. I think that the selected resources are, in fact, a full alphabetical listing of the Selected Reading which appears at the end of each entry. The book contains a very comprehensive index extending to 42 pages.

The Great Depression in America: A Cultural Encyclopedia is marvellous resource for students, and others, studying this interesting period of American history, particularly where there is a need to try and look at how individuals were affected at the time, or to try and visualise and "experience" their lives, including their social activities and interests. TV producers and authors who are studying this area for characterisation will appreciate the minutiae provided. The book is absolutely brimming over with facts, and yet it is written in a pleasing and interesting style. It is neither totally academic in approach nor is it populist - it is an excellent read, the epitome of the "hard to put down" book, if the cliché can be forgiven! Excellent for a public library where readers, or their parents or grandparents, may have personal experience of the era. A good one - well recommended!

Reviewed by: Eric Jukes, Asset & Information Systems Manager, Learning Resources, College of North East London (CONEL), London, UK