And a Time for Hope: Americans in the Great Depression. By James R. McGovern. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2000. Pp. 354. $69.95

John Joseph Wallis

The Journal of Economic History, 2001, vol. 61, issue 3, 855-856

Abstract: This is more than a nice book. This is a relentlessly nice, positive, and upbeat book about Americans in the Great Depression. However “depressing” the Depression was economically, McGovern's aim is to show that “we have not paid them [Depression-era Americans] the attention they deserve. We have overlooked their diverse strengths, poise, creative adaptability, and, above all, their triumphant retention of positive values and commitments despite the beleaguering and enervating powers of the Depression” (p. 267). The larger question that frames the book is why, when the economic Depression in America was more severe than in many other countries, did America not experience the same social turmoil and political instability as did much of Europe, for example, fascism in Germany and Spain. “[A]s the punch line in the old political gag declared, the best America could come up with in these momentous times was Huey Long. Not only was America free from effective threats by extremist leaders, the society, considering the times, was surprisingly tranquil; … Alone in its class, the American ship of state and its crew moved in the main with a kind of classic calm through the Depression's dangerous shoals and turbulent waters” (p. 267).

Date: 2001
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