Tydens die groot depressie het mense eintlik langer gelewe - GESKIEDENIS

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Die Groot Depressie was 'n moeilike, lewensveranderende tydperk in die Verenigde State, toe miljoene mense gesukkel het om werk te kry en oor die weg te kom. Ondanks die moeilike tye het die gemiddelde lewensduur van Amerikaners eintlik toegeneem.

In werklikheid toon historiese navorsing dat toenames in Amerikaanse sterftes gedurende die 20ste eeu dikwels tydens ekonomiese voorspoed plaasgevind het, terwyl afname tydens ekonomiese depressies of resessies plaasgevind het.

In die eerste paar jaar na die ineenstorting van die aandelemark in 1929 was selfmoord die enigste groot oorsaak van dood wat toegeneem het, sê José A. Tapia Granados, professor in politiek aan die Drexel Universiteit en mede-outeur van 'n navorsingsartikel van 2009 in PNAS oor lewe en dood tydens die Groot Depressie. Terwyl selfmoorde toegeneem het, het Tapia bevind dat sterftes as gevolg van kardiovaskulêre en niersiektes gestabiliseer het tussen 1930 en 1932, die ergste jare van die depressie. Verkeerssterftes het in 1932 gedaal. Sterftes weens tuberkulose, griep en longontsteking het ook afgeneem.

LEES MEER: Hoe appels 'n wapen geword het teen die groot depressie

Gevolglik het die gemiddelde lewensverwagting in die VSA gestyg van ongeveer 57 in 1929 tot 63 in 1933. In albei dekades het bruin mense 'n laer gemiddelde lewensverwagting as wit mense. Maar toe die depressie toeslaan, het die gemiddelde lewensverwagting vir mense van kleur vinniger gestyg as dié van blankes, met ongeveer agt jaar van 1929 tot 1933.

Minder verkeer, rook met swak ekonomie

Daar is geen vaste antwoorde oor waarom Amerikaners gedurende die ergste jare van die depressie langer geleef het nie, maar geleerdes het 'n paar voorstelle gemaak. Neem sterftes in die verkeer: motorverbruik het gedurende die 1920's toegeneem, en daarmee saam ook verkeersverwante sterftes. Een moontlike verklaring vir hul agteruitgang in die dertigerjare is dat daar, met 'n hoër werkloosheidsyfer, net minder mense op pad was. Minder mense kon ook bekostig om motors te besit - soos blyk uit 'n beroemde foto (hierbo) van 'n man wat sy motor probeer verkoop het nadat hy sy geld op die aandelemark verloor het.

Daar is ook navorsing wat daarop dui dat mense tydens Amerikaanse uitbreidings meer rook, meer stres ervaar en minder slaap. Al hierdie faktore kan 'n negatiewe uitwerking op die gesondheid hê. Dit kan nie net van toepassing wees op die Groot Depressie nie, maar ook op ander ekonomiese insinkings in die 20ste eeu. In 2018 was Tapia mede-outeur van nog 'n artikel in die American Journal of Epidemiology wat gekyk het na data van 1985 tot 2011, 'n tydperk wat drie resessies dek.

'Wat ons in hierdie koerant gevind het, is dat 'n aantal dinge wat gewoonlik oor werklose mense gedink word, blykbaar nie waar is nie,' sê hy. Alhoewel die werklose mense in die studie hoër vlakke van depressie gehad het, het hulle gemiddeld 'n laer bloeddruk gehad. Hulle het ook nie meer gerook of gedrink as werknemers nie. Trouens, Tapia merk op dat sigaretverkope histories gestyg het as dit goed gaan met die ekonomie en gedaal het as dit nie die geval is nie.

LEES MEER: Mobster Al Capone het tydens die groot depressie 'n sopkombuis bestuur

Langer lewensverwagting gedurende periodes van ekonomiese agteruitgang is reeds in die 1920's opgemerk, toe William Ogburn en Dorothy Thomas hierdie waarneming gemaak het met behulp van Amerikaanse en Britse data. In 1977 herleef Joseph Eyer hierdie teorie met 'n opspraakwekkende artikel, "Voorspoed as oorsaak van dood". Vandag het geleerdes soortgelyke tendense in Europa gesien, en daar is 'n mate van debat oor wat dit beteken.

Die uitwerking van die ekonomie op lewensduur kan 'n 'vertraging' weerspieël

Een argument is dat 'n styging en daling van sterftes met die ekonomie 'n 'vertraging' in die gevolge van die gesondheid van mense weerspieël. In hierdie scenario sou sterftesyfers in 'n goeie ekonomie hoër wees as gevolg van die swak gesondheidstoestande wat mense tydens 'n vorige resessie ondervind het. En op sy beurt sou sterftes in 'n slegte ekonomie laer wees as gevolg van die goeie toestande wat mense tydens die vorige ekonomiese uitbreiding beleef het.

Navorsing het ook daarop gewys dat 'n 'goeie' ekonomie nie beteken dat lewensomstandighede vir almal 'goed' is nie. Verhoogde ekonomiese produktiwiteit veroorsaak dikwels meer besoedeling, wat diegene wat die minste toegang tot gesondheidsdienste en veilige behuising het, benadeel. Veral babas is vatbaar vir swak omgewingstoestande; dus kan hoër vlakke van faktore soos lugbesoedeling kindersterftes verhoog.

Daar is geen eenvoudige antwoorde waarom die gemiddelde lewensduur tydens die Groot Depressie toegeneem het nie, of waarom die Amerikaanse sterftes met die ekonomie bly styg en daal. Maar dit weerspreek wel aannames dat die gesondheid van 'n nasie soos die ekonomie gaan, so ook gaan.

LEES MEER: 10 maniere waarop Amerikaners pret gehad het tydens die groot depressie

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Tydens die groot depressie het mense eintlik langer gelewe - GESKIEDENIS

Na meer as 'n halfeeu bly beelde van die Groot Depressie stewig in die Amerikaanse psige geëtste: broodlyne, sopkombuise, blikkiesblikke en teerpapierhutte bekend as "Hoovervilles", sonder geld manne en vroue wat appels op straathoeke verkoop, en grys bataljons van Arkies en Okies verpak in Model A Fords op pad na Kalifornië.

Die ineenstorting was verbysterend in sy afmetings. Werkloosheid het gestyg van minder as 3 miljoen in 1929 tot 4 miljoen in 1930, na 8 miljoen in 1931 en tot 12 1/2 miljoen in 1932. In daardie jaar het 'n kwart van die land se gesinne nie 'n enkele loonverdiener gehad nie. Selfs diegene wat gelukkig is om werk te kry, het drastiese loonverlagings en werksure verminder. Slegs een uit elke tien ondernemings het nie betaal nie, en in 1932 was driekwart van alle werkers op deeltydse skedules, gemiddeld slegs 60 persent van die normale werkweek.

Die ekonomiese ineenstorting was skrikwekkend in die omvang en impak daarvan. Teen 1933 het die gemiddelde gesinsinkomste met 40 persent gedaal, van $ 2300 in 1929 tot slegs $ 1500 vier jaar later. In die steenkoolvelde in Pennsylvania het drie of vier gesinne in eenkamerhutte saamgedrom en op wilde onkruid gewoon. In Arkansas is gesinne gevind wat in grotte woon. In Oakland, Kalifornië, het hele gesinne in rioolpype gewoon.

Vagrancy het opgeskiet terwyl baie gesinne uit hul huise gesit is omdat hulle nie huurgeld betaal het nie. Die Southern Pacific Railroad het gespog dat dit in 1931 683 000 rondloper van sy treine af gegooi het. Gratis openbare flophouses en missies in Los Angeles het beddens voorsien vir 200 000 van die ontwortelde.

Om geld te bespaar, het gesinne mediese en tandheelkundige sorg verwaarloos. Baie gesinne wou dit regkry deur tuine aan te plant, kos in te blik, brood te koop en karton en katoen vir skoensole te gebruik. Ondanks die skerp daling in voedselpryse, het baie gesinne sonder melk of vleis klaargekom. In New York het die melkverbruik met 'n miljoen liter per dag afgeneem.

President Herbert Hoover verklaar: "Niemand is eintlik honger nie. Die boemelaars word beter gevoed as wat hulle ooit was." Maar in 1931 in New York was daar 20 gevalle van hongersnood in 1934, 110 sterftes as gevolg van honger. Daar was soveel berigte oor mense wat honger ly in New York dat die Wes -Afrikaanse nasie Kameroen 3,77 dollar vergoed het.

Die depressie het 'n kragtige uitwerking op gesinne gehad. Dit het paartjies gedwing om die huwelik te vertraag en het die geboortesyfer vir die eerste keer in die Amerikaanse geskiedenis onder die vervangingsvlak gedryf. Die egskeidingsyfer het gedaal, net omdat baie paartjies dit nie kon bekostig om aparte huishoudings te onderhou of regskoste te betaal nie. Tog het die verlatingstempo gestyg. Teen 1940 was daar 1,5 miljoen getroude vroue wat los van hul mans was. Meer as 200 000 rondloper-kinders het deur die land rondgedwaal as gevolg van die uitbreek van hul gesinne.

Die depressie het werklose mans 'n groot sielkundige tol toegedien. Met geen lone om hul vermoë te onderdruk nie, het baie mans die mag verloor as primêre besluitnemers. 'N Groot aantal mans het selfrespek verloor, geïmmobiliseer en het opgehou om werk te soek, terwyl ander hulle na alkohol gewend het of selfvernietigend of beledigend vir hul gesinne geword het.

In teenstelling met mans, het baie vroue hul status tydens die depressie sien toeneem. Om die gesinsinkomste aan te vul, het getroude vroue in groot getalle die arbeidsmag betree. Alhoewel die meeste vroue in gewone beroepe gewerk het, het die feit dat hulle in diens was en salarisse huis toe gebring het, hul posisie in die gesin verhoog en hulle 'n sê gegee oor gesinsbesluite.

Ondanks die ontberings wat dit veroorsaak het, het die Groot Depressie sommige gesinne nader aan mekaar getrek. Soos een waarnemer opgemerk het: "Menige gesin het sy motor verloor en sy siel gevind." Gesinne moes strategieë beraam om deur moeilike tye te kom, omdat hul voortbestaan daarvan afhang. Hulle het hul inkomste saamgevoeg, by familielede ingetrek om uitgawes te besnoei, dagoud brood gekoop en sonder. Baie gesinne het troos getrek uit hul godsdiens, ondersteun deur die hoop dat dinge uiteindelik sou uitloop, terwyl ander hul geloof in hulself geplaas het, in hul eie vasbeslote vasberadenheid om te oorleef wat waarnemers soos Woody Guthrie so beïndruk het. Baie Amerikaners het egter nie meer geglo dat die probleme opgelos kan word deur mense wat alleen of deur vrywillige verenigings optree nie. Hulle het toenemend na die federale regering om hulp gesoek.

Groot depressie in Alabama

Bosherstel Die groot depressie was 'n volgehoue, nasionale ekonomiese resessie wat die lewens van alle Alabamiërs gevorm het. Alhoewel die Amerikaanse ineenstorting van die aandelemark in Oktober 1929 dikwels as die begin van die Groot Depressie beskou word, in Alabama en elders, vererger die ongeluk 'n reeds bestaande afname in die landbou wat baie vroeër in die dekade begin het en daarna oor die hele wêreld versprei het na stede en nywerhede . Die impak van die depressie op Alabama het gedurende die dertigerjare geduur en, vir sommige Alabamiërs, tot in die vroeë veertigerjare, wat langer was as die hele land. Die situasie van Alabama gedurende hierdie jare was so erg dat dit die aandag getrek het Fortuin tydskrif, wat die skrywer James Agee en fotograaf Walker Evans in 1936 na Alabama gestuur het. Laat ons nou beroemde manne prys, sou die ikoniese studie word van die ervarings van Alabamiërs tydens die depressie. Die era het die staat se politieke, ekonomiese en sosiale tradisies hervorm, die ekonomiese ongelykhede wat met industriële werk gepaard gaan, beklemtoon en Alabama se jarelange sosiale en rassehiërargieë uitgedaag en selfs sommige Alabamiërs, swart en wit, aangemoedig om te streef na basiese burgerregte. Pres. Franklin Roosevelt se New Deal het verligting gebied vir baie mense wat onder ernstige armoede te kampe het, maar die depressie het werklik net geëindig met die ekonomiese oplewing wat gevolg het op die mobilisering van die staat as gevolg van die Tweede Wêreldoorlog.

Tengle-kinders in Hale County In die jare na die burgeroorlog het Alabamiërs, soos baie Suid-Afrikaners, op die rand van armoede geleef, as gevolg van die ontwrigting van die plantasie-ekonomie en die daaropvolgende styging van wydverspreide deelbou en huurkontrak, lae-loonbedryf en 'n gebrekkige ekonomie. Die verwoesting van katoengewasse deur die verspreiding van die bolweefel en 'n daling in katoenpryse as gevolg van internasionale mededinging het die staat se ekonomie in die 1920's verder onderdruk. Die plaasgesinne in Alabama het die eerste depressie beleef toe die katoenpryse skerp gedaal het. Die goedere het vroeg in 1921 begin val, van 'n hoogtepunt van 35 sent per pond tot minder as 5 sent per pond in 1932. Sommige boere kon nie 'n bestaan op katoen maak nie, maar het weggegaan om werk in stede te vind. Ander verval dieper in skuld en huur. Tussen 1920 en 1930 het die aantal grondeienaars van ongeveer 96 000 tot 75 000 gedaal, 'n afname wat vir wit boere swaarder as swart boere was. Trouens, die swart eienaarskap van grond het in die laat twintigerjare effens toegeneem, as gevolg van dalende grondpryse en Afro -Amerikaners wat na die suide teruggekeer het in 'n kort ommekeer van die Groot Migrasie. Swart boere het egter steeds kleiner, minder winsgewende plase as blanke eienaars besit. Nietemin het die aantal huurders in die loop van die dekade universeel toegeneem, van 148,000 tot 166,000. Verder het die gemiddelde plaasgrootte tussen 1920 en 1930 van 75 tot 68 hektaar gekrimp en in waarde van $ 3 803 tot $ 2 375 gedaal, en die persentasie plase wat deur huurders gewerk word, het toegeneem van 58 persent tot 65 persent, nog 'n teken van verslegtende tye voor die depressie.

Gadsden Textile Strike Die algemene ekonomiese agteruitgang van die 1920's en die depressie het ook 'n uitwerking op die tekstielbedryf gehad. Verskeie meulens het toegemaak weens ekonomiese ontbering. Huntsville se Dallas Mill, byvoorbeeld, het van 'n wins van byna $ 800,000 in 1920 na verliese van byna $ 280,000 gegaan net 'n dekade later. Tog het die tekstielbedryf in Alabama die depressie beter verduur as yster en staal, hout of mynbou. Meule -eienaars was opmerklik veerkragtig in die lig van die ekonomiese afswaai; hulle het werknemers se loon verminder, ure verleng en voordeel getrek uit die toenemende werkloosheid om mans, vroue en kinders aan te stel wat bereid is om te werk vir baie lae lone. Tussen 1929 en 1935 het tekstielmeulens slegs 4300 werksgeleenthede verloor en daarna ná 1936 dramaties herstel om ander staatsbedrywe te oortref. Die grootste uitdaging vir tekstiele gedurende die dertigerjare was nie die depressie self nie, maar 'n massiewe staking wat in 1934 in Gadsden begin het en na meulens aan die ooskus versprei het, terwyl werkers protesteer teen die meule -eienaars se pogings om nuwe regulasies wat tydens die New Deal ingestel is, te vermy. .

Family in Mobile tydens die Groot Depressie Hoewel Birmingham 'n nasionale simbool van stedelike lyding geword het, het Mobile en Montgomery ook swaarkry beleef. In Mobile het die verkeer by die hawe afgeneem, wat gelei het tot 'n tekort in die stad. Aangesien kleinhandelverkope en handel met tientalle miljoene dollars gedaal het, was ongeveer 10 persent van die volwassenes in die stad op hul gemak en stadsdienste het toegeneem. In Montgomery het verdedigingsgeleenthede by Maxwell Field (nou Maxwell Air Force Base) die stad opgejaag, maar inwoners besnoei besteding, veral aan onnodige items. In die hele staat het stede en provinsies dikwels onderwysers en ander staatswerkers in IOU's en 'lasbriewe' betaal, stukke papier wat veronderstel was om vir kontant inbetaal te word sodra die ekonomie verbeter het. Baie dokters, prokureurs en ander professionele persone is betaal met kos, goedere en arbeid.

Verbod Noties van spaarsaamheid van die regering speel 'n belangrike rol in die verkiesing van Benjamin Meek Miller in 1930 as goewerneur. Miller het belowe om die regering se besteding in die staat te beklee (sy bynaam was 'Ou ekonomie'), maar toe hy sy amp beklee, het hy gevind dat die verslegtende depressie gekombineer met 'n mislukking van vrywillige hulp nuwe eise aan die staatskas stel. Met 'n dalende inkomste, dreig onbetaalde onderwysers om te staak, en die goewerneur het 'n staatsinkomsteheffing geïmplementeer, byna $ 500 000 geleen om hulpverlening te befonds en wetgewing gesteun om leningslimiete te verhoog, maar sy pogings het te kort gegaan, en baie plekke het skole gesluit of ure verminder. In die hoop om die koste te verminder, het Miller, 'n toegewyde verbod, ook die staat se wetstoepassingsafdeling ontbind, wie se hooftaak was om die verbod te handhaaf. Hierdie onverskilligheid, gekombineer met 'n landwye poging om die verbod op te skort as 'n manier om die depressie te beantwoord, het daartoe gelei dat Alabama by die res van die land aangesluit het om die 21ste wysiging in 1933 goed te keur. Miller het ook die eerste stappe gedoen om die Alabama Relief Administration (ARA) te stig ), 'n staatsbeheerde agentskap wat 'n belangrike rol gespeel het in die verspreiding van New Deal-geld. Tog was die voordele van staatshulp in die vroeë dertigerjare beperk, maar die ARA het dikwels nie-vakbond, geskoolde arbeiders en die werkersklas en arm blanke en swart Alabamiërs as geldverdienste bevoordeel. Hierdie mense het op hul beurt verligting gesoek onder hul gesinne en gemeenskappe, en toenemend by die federale regering, veral die bepalings van New Deal -agentskappe. Pres. Roosevelt moes Miller dikwels aanmoedig om meer van die geld te bestee wat die staat vir hulp ontvang het.

Opvallende mynwerkers Die meeste Alabamiërs het na Miller en later Roosevelt om hulp gesoek, maar 'n paar het onkonvensionele politieke oplossings gesoek. In 1930 stig die Amerikaanse Kommunistiese Party 'n tak in Birmingham en vind 'n ontvanklike gehoor vir meer radikale veranderinge in die mislukte ekonomie. Die groep het 'n nuusbrief gepubliseer genaamd die Suidelike Werker Dit was gemik op die landbou- en nywerheidswerkers van die Suide en het verbindings met georganiseerde arbeid in die stad se myne en meulens en met gemarginaliseerde boere op die omliggende platteland gevestig. In reaksie op die toenemende kommunistiese teenwoordigheid en arbeidsonrus in die meulens en landerye, het Birmingham 'n "anti-sedisie" -wet goedgekeur wat burgers wat kritiek op die Amerikaanse regering was, gestraf het en 'n "rooi groep" polisiebeamptes aangestel het wat die taak gehad het om Kommunisties uit te skakel. simpatiseerders. Joseph Gelders, 'n fisika-professor aan die Universiteit van Alabama in Tuscaloosa, in die provinsie Tuscaloosa, en 'n bekende voorstander van werkersregte en burgerlike vryhede, is ontvoer en geslaan vir vermeende verbintenisse met die party tydens die geringe 'rooi skrik' wat gevolg het . Hoewel dit nie so omvangryk was as die paniek van 1919 en die 1950's nie, het die skrik in die depressie-era gelei tot 'n aantal arrestasies, gewelddade en 'n noemenswaardige toename in die aktiwiteit van die Ku Klux Klan, wat 'n geringe oplewing in anti- arbeid en anti-kommunistiese retoriek.

Roosevelt besoek die Wilson -dam Vanaf 1933 het die koms van New Deal -programme sommige van die ergste aspekte van die depressie verlig. Net so belangrik is dat New Deal -programme die politieke en sosiale ontwrigtings wat tydens die depressie begin is, voortgesit het. In 1934 keer die kiesers in Alabama terug na die voormalige goewerneur en die opvallende progressiewe David Bibb Graves, wat die gesig geword het van die staat se pogings om die ekonomiese krisis te bekamp. Graves dui ook op 'n belangrike politieke verandering, aangesien populistiese demokrate hul pogings tot ekonomiese verbetering toegespits het, selfs al beteken dit beperkte samewerking met die federale beleid en minder beroepe op blanke oppergesag. In 'n staat en streek waar armoede vir baie 'n lewensgetrou was, selfs tydens tye van nasionale welvaart, het die Groot Depressie die nasionale aandag gebring op die lot van baie Alabamiërs en het die leiers van die staat gedwing om 'n groter rol te speel in die voorsiening van baie minder gelukkig.

Die ekonomie van Alabama het eers begin herstel ná die koms van die opbou van die Tweede Wêreldoorlog, hoewel die gevolge van die Groot Depressie, die New Deal en die oorlog groot veranderinge en ontwrigtings veroorsaak het. Die landbou het verskuif van klein plase en huurpag na minder en groter plase, loonarbeiders en meganisasie. Die aantal huurders het skerp afgeneem weens die beskikbaarheid van goedbetaalde oorlogswerk, selfs al het die meganisasie toegeneem as gevolg van New Deal-subsidies en industrialisering. Aanlegte en fasiliteite in oorlogstyd in Huntsville, Gadsden en Childersburg, en 'n toenemende vraag na yster en staal uit Birmingham en skepe van Mobile het gelei tot 'n toename in werkgeleenthede, aangesien baie Alabamiërs van veld na fabriek gemigreer het. In Huntsville het die werkgeleentheid die hoogte ingeskiet van 133 totale werkers in 1939 tot meer as 11,000 in slegs vyf jaar in sy twee arsenale en wapensopslag alleen. Teen 1940 het die staat se werkloosheidsyfer gedaal tot 6,6 persent, 'n kombinasie van werk op die gebied van verdediging, oorblywende werk op openbare verligting en aansporings vir verouderende werkers om af te tree. Selfs Birmingham, die stad wat die swaarste getref is, het die werkloosheid tot 10,9 persent verminder. Namate die staat by die nasionale verdedigingspoging aangesluit het, het die ekonomiese gevolge van die depressie begin terugtrek, selfs al het sy politieke, sosiale en persoonlike nalatenskap die lewens van Alabamiërs nog jare lank gevorm.

Brown, James Seay Jr., red. Up Before Daylight: Life Histories from the Alabama Writers 'Project, 1938-1939. Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 1982.

3 Antwoorde 3

Volgens my vinnige lees van die lewe en dood tydens die groot depressie deur José A. Tapia Granadosa en Ana V. Diez Roux, was die enigste merkbare toename in sterfteselfmoord, met 'n merkbare afname in sterftes in elke ander kategorie.

Dit is interessant dat hierdie artikel in 2009 geskryf is, voor die (sal ons sê) sensasionele Russiese eis van 7 miljoen sterftes.

Volgens Michael Mosley het lewensverwagting eintlik gestyg deur die Groot Depressie. In sy Horizon -program Eat, Fast and Live Longer beweer hy

Van 1929 tot 1933, in die donkerste jare van die groot depressie toe mense baie minder geëet het, het die lewensverwagting met 6 jaar toegeneem.

Gesondheidsnavorsers versamel data oor sterftes in 114 Amerikaanse stede tydens die Groot Depressie. Hulle bevindinge bevestig die indrukke van baie waarnemers in die dertigerjare; sterftes het nie toegeneem tydens die Groot Depressie nie:

Dit bevat 'n tabel wat die neigings in sterftesyfers per 100,000 bevolking toon. Hongersnood verskyn nie op die lys nie, en dit word ook nie in die artikel vermeld nie. Die navorsers doen erken dat ondervoeding gelei het tot verminderde gesondheid tydens die depressie, maar nie tot verhoogde sterftes nie. Ondervoeding was 'n wydverspreide probleem, maar honger was nie.

'N Paar opmerkings oor die tafel. Eerstens het die dood weens siektes oor die algemeen gedurende die tydperk nie toegeneem nie, en die navorsers klassifiseer dus nie die dood as gevolg van wanvoeding na die dood as gevolg van siektes nie. Tweedens, let op dat hulle in die tabel selfs siektes soos pokke uitbreek, wat verantwoordelik is vir sterftesyfers onder 1 uit 100 000. Dit impliseer gewoonlik dat hongersnood verantwoordelik was vir sterftes teen 'n gelykwaardige of laer koers.

Hierdie studie bevestig ander studies wat byvoorbeeld bevind dat die kindersterftesyfer konsekwent in die dertigerjare afgeneem het:

Die voorbehoud is dat hierdie studie gebaseer is op stedelike bevolkings, en dat sekere landelike bevolkings moontlik erger armoede ondervind het. Maar die algemene boodskap is dat sterftes as gevolg van hongersnood in hierdie tydperk skaars sou gewees het. My weliswaar baie ekstrapolasie van hierdie data is dat ons 'n koers in duisende per jaar kan kry voordat die New Deal -agentskappe aan die gang kom:

Dit is belangrik dat hierdie studie toon dat die ekonomiese krisis nie 'n sterfteskrisis waarborg nie, maar dat dit die belangrikste idee is hoe regerings reageer en of die maatskaplike en openbare gesondheidsbeleid beskerm word tydens en voor ekonomiese skokke

Bronne: David Stuckler, Christopher Meissner, Price Fishback, Sanjay Basu, Martin McKee. 2011. "Bankkrisisse en sterftes tydens die Groot Depressie: bewyse van Amerikaanse stedelike bevolkings, 1929-1937." Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. (skakel)

Perdrybibliotekarisse was die groot depressie en boekmotors

Hulle perde spat deur yskoue spruite. Bibliotekarisse ry op in die Kentuckyberge, met hul saalsakke vol boeke, en lees materiaal aan geïsoleerde plattelanders uit. Die Groot Depressie het die land in armoede gedompel, en 'n arm staat in Kentucky wat nog armer geword het deur 'n verlamde nasionale ekonomie, was onder die swaarste getref.

Die Pack Horse Library -inisiatief, wat bibliotekarisse diep in Appalachia gestuur het, was een van die mees unieke planne van die New Deal. Die projek, soos geïmplementeer deur die Works Progress Administration (WPA), het leesstof versprei aan die mense wat in die woeste gedeelte van 10 000 vierkante kilometer van die ooste van Kentucky gewoon het. Die staat het sy bure al op elektrisiteit en snelweë geloop. En tydens die depressie was voedsel, opvoeding en ekonomiese geleenthede selfs skaars vir Appalachiërs.

Hulle het ook nie boeke gehad nie: in 1930 kon tot 31 persent van die mense in die ooste van Kentucky nie lees nie. Inwoners wou leer, sê historikus Donald C. Boyd. Steenkool en spoorweë, wat gereed was om die ooste van Kentucky te industrialiseer, het groot gedroom in die gedagtes van baie Appalachiërs wat gereed was om deel te neem aan die verwagte voorspoed wat dit sou meebring. "Werkers beskou die skielike ekonomiese veranderinge as 'n bedreiging vir hul voortbestaan en geletterdheid as 'n manier om uit 'n wrede ekonomiese strik te ontsnap," skryf Boyd.

Dit was 'n uitdaging: In 1935 versprei Kentucky slegs een boek per capita in vergelyking met die American Library Association se standaard van vyf tot tien, skryf historikus Jeanne Cannella Schmitzer. Dit was '' 'n ontstellende beeld van biblioteekomstandighede en -behoeftes in Kentucky '', skryf Lena Nofcier, wat destyds voorsitter was van biblioteekdienste vir die Kentucky Congress of Parents and Teachers.

Daar was vorige pogings om boeke in die afgeleë gebied te kry. In 1913 het 'n Kentuckiër met die naam May Stafford geld aangevra om boeke te perd na landelike mense te neem, maar haar projek het net 'n jaar geduur. Die plaaslike Berea College het 'n perdewa in die laat tienerjare en vroeë 1920's die berge ingestuur. Maar die program was lank reeds teen 1934 geëindig, toe die eerste deur WPA geborgde pakhorse-biblioteek in Leslie County gestig is.

In teenstelling met baie New Deal -projekte, het die pakhorse -plan hulp van die plaaslike bevolking vereis. 'Biblioteke' was gehuisves in fasiliteite wat sou toeneem, van kerke tot poskantore. Bibliotekarisse beman hierdie buiteposte en gee boeke aan draers wat dan aan boord van hul muile of perde klim, koffers vol boeke en die heuwels in. Hulle het hul werk so ernstig opgeneem soos posdraers en strome gekruis in winterse omstandighede, voete vasgevang in die stiebeugels.

Draers het ten minste twee keer per maand gery, met elke roete 100 tot 120 myl per week. Nan Milan, wat boeke in 'n radius van 8 myl van die Pine Mountain Settlement School, 'n kosskool vir bergkinders, gedra het, het 'n grap gemaak dat die perde wat sy gery het, korter bene aan die een kant as die ander kant het sodat hulle nie kan wegglip nie die steil bergpaadjies. Ruiters het hul eie perde of muile gebruik-en die Pine Mountain-groep het 'n perd genaamd Sunny Jim gehad of hulle by bure verhuur. Hulle verdien $ 28 per maand en#8212 rondom $ 495 in moderne dollars.

Die boeke en tydskrifte wat hulle saamgevat het, kom gewoonlik uit skenkings van buite. Nofcier het hulle versoek deur die plaaslike ouer-onderwyservereniging. Sy het deur die staat gereis en mense in meer gegoede en toeganklike streke gevra om hul mede -Kentuckiërs in Appalachia te help. Sy het alles gevra: boeke, tydskrifte, materiaal vir Sondagskool, handboeke. Sodra die kosbare boeke in 'n biblioteek se versameling was, het bibliotekarisse alles in hul vermoë gedoen om dit te bewaar. Hulle het boeke herstel en ou kerskaartjies as boekmerke hergebruik, sodat mense minder geneig sou wees om blaaie te hoor.

Binnekort het die veldtog bekend geword en boeke kom uit die helfte van die state in die land. 'N Kentuckiër wat na Kalifornië verhuis het, het 500 boeke as 'n gedenkteken aan sy ma gestuur. Een weldoener uit Pittsburgh het leesstof versamel en 'n verslaggewer vertel wat sy van pakhorse -bibliotekarisse gehoor het. 'Laat die boekdame ons op Sondae en in die nag iets lees om te lees as ons deur die koring kom,' het een kind gevra, het sy gesê. Ander het opgeoffer om die projek te help, en spaar sent vir 'n rit om boekvoorrade aan te vul en vier miniatuur handgeknipte filmmasjiene te koop.

Toe materiaal te verslete raak om te versprei, het bibliotekarisse dit van nuwe boeke gemaak. Hulle plak verhale en prente uit die verslete boeke in bindmiddels en verander dit in nuwe leesstof. Resepte, wat ook in bindmiddels geplak is en deur die berge versprei is, was so gewild dat Kentuckians ook plakboeke met quiltpatrone begin het.

In 1936, packhorse librarians served 50,000 families, and, by 1937, 155 public schools. Children loved the program many mountain schools didn't have libraries, and since they were so far from public libraries, most students had never checked out a book. "'Bring me a book to read,' is the cry of every child as he runs to meet the librarian with whom he has become acquainted," wrote one Pack Horse Library supervisor. "Not a certain book, but any kind of book. The child has read none of them."

"The mountain people loved Mark Twain," says Kathi Appelt, who co-wrote a middle-grade book about the librarians with Schmitzer, in a 2002 radio interview. "One of the most popular books…was Robinson Crusoe.” Since so many adults could not read, she noted, illustrated books were among the most beloved. Illiterate adults relied on their literate children to help decipher them.

Ethel Perryman supervised women's and professional projects at London, Kentucky during the WPA years. "Some of the folks who want books live back in the mountains, and they use the creek beds for travel as there are no roads to their places, " she wrote to the president of Kentucky's PTA. “They carry books to isolated rural schools and community centers, picking up and replenishing book stocks as they go so that the entire number of books circulate through the county "

The system had some challenges, Schmitzer writes: Roads could be impassable, and one librarian had to hike her 18-mile route when her mule died. Some mountain families initially resisted the librarians, suspicious of outsiders riding in with unknown materials. In a bid to earn their trust, carriers would read Bible passages aloud. Many had only heard them through oral tradition, and the idea that the packhorse librarians could offer access to the Bible cast a positive light on their other materials. (Boyd’s research is also integral to understanding these challenges)

"Down Hell-for-Sartin Creek they start to deliver readin' books to fifty-seven communities," read one 1935 newspaper caption underneath a picture of riders. "The intelligence of the Kentucky mountaineer is keen," wrote a contemporary reporter. "All that has ever been said about him to the contrary notwithstanding, he is honest, truthful, and God-fearing, but bred to peculiar beliefs which are the basis of one of the most fascinating chapters in American Folklore. He grasped and clung to the Pack Horse Library idea with all the tenacity of one starved for learning."

The Pack Horse Library ended in 1943 after Franklin Roosevelt ordered the end of the WPA. The new war effort was putting people back to work, so WPA projects—including the Pack Horse Library—tapered off. That marked the end of horse-delivered books in Kentucky, but by 1946, motorized bookmobiles were on the move. Once again, books rode into the mountains, and, according to the Institute of Museum and Library Services, Kentucky’s public libraries had 75 bookmobiles in 2014—the largest number in the nation.

About Eliza McGraw

Eliza McGraw is the author of Here Comes Exterminator! which is about the 1918 Kentucky Derby winner. She lives in Washington.

This Is What It Was Like To Grow Up During The Great Depression

The Great Depression was the “deepest and longest-lasting economic downturn in the history of the Western industrialized world.” Today, the devastation of the Depression feels safely cushioned by history and the New Deal acronyms I could never remember in social studies. But in this moment of Donald Trump’s election to the presidency, a moment which will certainly be copied down in history books, it bears remembering that history is made up of stories—our own stories. My grandmother grew up the youngest of seven first-generation children in Chicago during the Great Depression. Her father and older siblings waited in lines every day for temp work that would earn mere cents. Finding enough food was a daily challenge.

In 2009, the Ohio Department of Aging solicited stories from those who had lived through the Great Depression. Coming off of the 2008 financial crisis it seemed, I think, a last chance to learn something from the generation who lived through the Great Depression as they reached their 80s and 90s. The stories are highly varied some tell of parents struggling to feed their children some of difficulty in finding secure employment some of insufficient supplies for school. For many, that was the reality. It is the narrative of the Depression we are most familiar with, but of course, there are many.

Berkley Bedell was born in 1921 in Northwest Iowa. The Great Depression lasted from 1929 to 1939—Bedell was 8 to 18 years old throughout its duration. He is a six-term congressman, the first-ever National Small Business Person of the Year award recipient, and a published author. I am lucky that he also happens to be a friend of my grandfather’s. When I spoke to Bedell over the phone, I’d already had a chance to look through his book, Revenue Matters: Tax the Rich and Restore Democracy to Save the Nation in which shares his politics and gives some of his background, including the fact that he started his award-winning business during the Great Depression.

In 1936, when Bedell was 15, still in high school and three years away from the end of the Depression, he started his fishing business, Berkley and Company, with $50 he had saved from a paper route. He spent roughly half on supplies to make fishing flies and fishing leaders and the other half on an advertisement. By the time he graduated high school in 1939, he had three women working for him for 15 cents an hour each. He promoted his business by traveling the Midwest taking orders. As he recounts in Revenue Matters, “I traveled over 3,000 miles and spent less than $50 for the entire trip—for 20-cents-per-gallon gasoline, 5-cent milk, and 5-cent bread.” The same business that Bedell started with $50 during the Depression would go on to win him the first ever National Small Businessman of the Year award from President Lyndon Johnson in 1964, and it is today a prominent fishing supply company.

I asked him whether he thought, in hindsight, that the Depression affected his business, and he told me that because he had such a small part of the total industry at the time, he was lucky to be unaffected. Instead, those that had to pay employee salaries and pay for their storefronts were more severely impacted. At the time, he didn’t realize what a tremendous opportunity he had. While his competitors struggled in tough economic times, Bedell had no overhead costs—he operated out of his parents’ house and the 15 cents per hour he paid his employees was not regulated by a minimum wage. The women working for him were just glad to have the money.

Bedell grew up in a rural community 500 miles away from Chicago (where my grandma’s family was struggling to survive) and 1,300 miles away from Wall Street where the stock market crash spelled nationwide economic decline. “In rural communities, people did not go hungry, did not lack shelter,” he said. He knows that times were hard, that people were poor, but he told me how much less people needed at the time. In Revenue Matters he says, “Most everyone was relatively poor by today’s standards, but we worked together with what we had and life was good.”

Bedell explained how, without television, kids made their own fun and played outside. People lived a more active lifestyle. “Humanity has made great advances in science, technology. Life is much easier, but I’m not sure it’s better.” He noted that his experience was atypical in many ways. He started what would become a very successful business. His father was an attorney and made more money than most. Given Bedell’s relative wealth during the Depression, it would be tempting to think that he was an outlier in his belief that life was better in the early 20 th century, but responses from the Ohio Department of Aging’s survey show that many who lived during the Great Depression agree with his assessment. In the same paragraph that respondents detailed their hardships, they lamented that modernity—internet, TV, exorbitant wealth—has come at the cost of self-sufficiency, generosity, and simplicity.

Bedell acknowledges the possibility that he’s being nostalgic, but he’s quick to point out the problems we face today that weren’t a concern during his childhood: climate change, the threat of nuclear war, the breakdown of political parties. When I asked how the economy eventually turned around, he told me that when the government intervened to create jobs, the economy started to recover. He credited the programs Franklin D. Roosevelt created to provide jobs (collectively what would become The New Deal), but said that the economy did not fully recover until after World War II, when the war effort stimulated the economy. He believes that government intervention is again key to our economic future. He believes in redistributing wealth and power by taxing the wealthy and eliminating corporate America’s political sway—lessons he’s learned since he was 15, starting his own business and watching as the country emerged from the Great Depression.

When I initially told Bedell that I wanted to share a firsthand account of what it was like to live through the Great Depression, he asked if he could give me some advice, as a writer and as someone “who’s lived in the world longer than most.” In so many words, he suggested that I not rely on a narrative I was expecting to hear. “From what I’ve seen,” he told me, “it’s worse today.”

In the current political climate, it’s easy to be nostalgic for a simpler time—I wish that the election of a new candidate did not bring up worries for the planet’s safety, for people of color’s safety, for the safety of programs and organizations that so many rely on.

That said, at the start of the Great Depression, women had only earned the right to vote nine years earlier schools wouldn’t be legally desegregated for another 25 years and the polio vaccine was still 26 years from approved use. It was a time when you could start a business with $50 in your pocket, before getting your college degree, but also an era fraught with financial hardship that left many Americans starving and without work. There are lessons to be learned from the Great Depression—nearly 80 years later, Bedell still believes strongly in equal distribution of wealth. And given the events of the last few weeks, I am hopeful that we can learn lessons from the past without forfeiting the progress we’ve made, without forgetting that we still have so much work left to do.

Survivors Of The Great Depression Tell Their Stories

Dusko Condic grew up in Bridgeport, on Chicago's south side, in a family of eight children. His mother was a widow. He says growing up in poverty during the Great Depression made him a stronger person. Neenah Ellis for NPR hide caption

Les Orear, president emeritus of the Illinois Labor History Society, gives a tour of the society's downtown museum. He is 97. Neenah Ellis for NPR hide caption

Les Orear, president emeritus of the Illinois Labor History Society, gives a tour of the society's downtown museum. He is 97.

Giggi Cortese, 81, has lived in Bridgeport all her life. Growing up during the Great Depression was hard, she says, but she drew strength from her family, friends and St. Jerome Catholic Church. Neenah Ellis for NPR hide caption

Giggi Cortese, 81, has lived in Bridgeport all her life. Growing up during the Great Depression was hard, she says, but she drew strength from her family, friends and St. Jerome Catholic Church.

The Great Depression of the 1930s is on peoples' minds these days. If you have family members who lived through it, you may hear their stories at the dinner table this Thanksgiving.

It was a period of protests and hunger marches — and unionism spread like wildfire — but many people suffered quietly, ashamed of their poverty. No matter what their situation, the Great Depression changed those in the generation that survived it.

During those years, Chicago was especially hard-hit. Unemployment was as high as 40 percent in some neighborhoods. The city was more segregated than it is now.

Wanda Bridgeforth, who is from the Bronzeville area known as the "Black Metropolis," says she has rich memories of those years. It was a fairly affluent neighborhood — jazz great Louis Armstrong lived there, and so did Ida B. Wells — until hard times came.

"In the Depression, the men could not get jobs, and especially the black men," Bridgeforth says. "Here was my father with a degree in chemistry, and he could not get a job."

Bridgeforth's father was humiliated, she says. He fell apart, so her mother took what work she could find as a live-in domestic worker. Bridgeforth, who was in grade school, was boarded out.

"She told me that this is the way it has to be," Bridgeforth says. "So we either do it and survive, or don't do it and don't survive."

Bridgeforth was sent to live with relatives and sometimes with strangers.

"One house we lived in — there were 19 of us in a six-room house," she says.

Bridgeforth did learn to share and cooperate, she says, but so many years going without left a mark on her.

"The kids do say that I'm a pack rat," she says. "And they say, 'Well, what are you going to use this for?' and I say, 'I don't know, but I'm going to use it.' "

Surviving Winters Near Lake Michigan

In Chicago's oldest Mexican neighborhood, near Lake Michigan in South Chicago, Henry Martinez says the winters were so cold, they huddled around the potbelly stove.

Martinez's parents had 13 children, and they lived hand-to-mouth in a flat with shared bathrooms.

"You wanted to take a bath, you heat up the water in these big cans," Martinez says. "It was always a challenge to keep warm — we hugged each other on the floor. We had little beds that open and close. When I think about it, it was horrible. It was horrible. And then the sanitation of the community — garbage was just put in the alley — and did that create a condition? Yes it did: TB [tuberculosis]. I know my sister came down with TB. Sometimes I like to block that out and just say, 'Thanks God you're here.' "

He thanks God but says the Catholic Church didn't do much to help his family back then. At 76, Martinez works as a community organizer trying to help his old neighborhood, which is still poor.

Downtown Chicago Before The Unions

In a downtown Chicago office, right next to the El tracks, Les Orear remembers an easier childhood. Orear, 97, is now president emeritus of the Illinois Labor History Society.

But in the 1920s, Orear's father was a newspaperman, and Orear was in college when the stock market crashed.

"Pretty soon I got a call that I'd have to come back to Chicago and help support my family," Orear says. "Hm!"

He got a job at the stockyards making 37.5 cents a day. Chicago was a hotbed of union organizing in the 1930s, and Orear dedicated himself to bringing in the union. He says it made him feel useful.

"It was a wonderful time for me because here I was this young fella, and radical ideas are coming nowadays, I feel like I'm in the cusp," Orear says. "I'm one of those that is giving leadership to the working force that's going into the union. . And it's going on all over the country. I'm not a lone warrior. I'm part of a vast machine."

But Orear has no memories of Thanksgiving or Christmas "whatsoever," he says.

"All of those holidays were so incidental," Orear says. "We in the yards did not have Christmas. We had Christmas off, but it was a day with no pay."

It was the same for Thanksgiving, and Orear says there were no vacations or benefits.

"It's hard now for young people — for anybody — to remember, that's the way the world worked in those days, before unions. That is the difference, kiddos."

Born To Immigrants In Bridgeport

Bridgeport, south of the Loop, is home to the White Sox. Church steeples sprout from this working class neighborhood of the Irish, Italians, Polish, Lithuanians, Chinese and Croatians of St. Jerome's Parish.

Many of them were born during the '20s to immigrant parents.

Giggi Besic Cortese, 81, has lived in the neighborhood all her life. She lives on a block full of two-story brick and frame houses with narrow sidewalks between them. She said boarders stayed upstairs, including a man named John Vuk who took her to the show every Sunday.

"Do you known how I survived those days?" Cortese asks. "[It] was going to the show every Sunday to see Shirley Temple, but [I] tell you, she was my inspiration to go on living. Honest to goodness, I couldn't wait till Sunday, and we would sit and wait for John Vuk to say, 'Come, ve go to the show, ve go to the show today.' You can certainly say that people had heart for one another — and if they were able to help, more often than not they did."

Dusko Condic, 77, who is also from the Bridgeport neighborhood, says his father died "a relatively young man," in his early 40s.

"He left eight of us," Condic says. "Unfortunately, we lost the house. I can remember to this day — and I become emotional when I think of it — literally being placed on the sidewalk [with] every last possession that my poor mother had because she wasn't able to supposedly pay the mortgage. And an incredible number of people came to my mothers' aid, literally wheeling wheelbarrows of coal to help warm the house."

Condic and his friends have a lot of good memories, too. They were children glued to the radio every Sunday.

"There's nothing they like better than gathering around the table and telling stories from the old days," Condic says. "Today, on Thanksgiving, their children and grandchildren might ask about the Great Depression they say, but they're pretty sure the kids don't really understand."

"My brother Mark has 10 kids, and somewhere along the line they tend to disregard the value of money," Condic says. " 'Oh, Dad, it's only money. So what, I can make more.' And on more than one occasion, he tells them, 'Hey kids, God heaven forbid if the Depression comes around again. I won't be opening up the window and jumping out, but I can see you guys doing it.' I think that's probably true."

There's grit in this generation of Chicagoans — and something of a swagger, too. The man who cries about his mother's struggles can boast in the face of today's catastrophe.

Says Condic: "Tomorrow I could lose everything, but somehow I'm not afraid. I really am not."

Daily life during the Great Depression

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Since the Great Recession of 2008 and 2009, there have been a lot of news stories about how awful everything is. Never mind that most Americans enjoy the best standard of living of any culture in history, people still find things to complain about. Perhaps this is because people lack perspective. They don't realize what life was like in the past or what real hardship is.

The always-excellent Reading Through History channel on YouTube has a seven-minute video that takes us on a tour of what like was like for the typical American family during the Great Depression.

During the Great Depression, nearly one quarter of all Americans were unemployed. Even those who could find jobs struggled to get by. Wages were reduced by as much as 60% — but people were happy to have any sort of income.

The average take-home pay was about $17 per week (or around $900 per year), but many people made less. Prices were lower too, of course: a man's shirt cost about $1, a washing machine cost about $33 (or two weeks of take-home pay). During these lean times, families had to come up with creative ways to economize.

To cut costs, it was common for extended families to live together. Aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents would crowed together. In some cases, different families would come together to share one household in order to save money.
Because many families struggled to get by, certain common luxuries feel by the wayside. Many people stopped going to the barber, for instance, and started cutting hair at home. (When my family was struggling during the 1970s, we did this too.) Families also stopped going to the dentist and doctor.
The reuse and recycling of clothing became common practice. Instead of throwing away a worn-out pair of shoes, people learned to patch them. Clothes were handed down from child to child (and person to person).
For families that could afford it, Saturday evening was often spent shopping. People would browse the various shops downtown. Even if folks didn't have much money, they could still “window shop” and look at products they could dream of owning.

Radio was the most prevalent form of entertainment during the Great Depression. Radio had risen to prominence in the 1920s and became ubiquitous by the end of the 1930s. (Old-time radio is one of my favorite subjects. The first licensed commercial radio station in the U.S. started broadcasting in Pittsburgh on 02 November 1920. In the early years, radio broadcasts were free-wheeling and largely unsponsored. But by the 1930s, the format we're now familiar with from television was starting to settle into place.)

Board games were another popular pastime. Sorry and Monopoly were both released during the 1930s and became huge hits. (True story: When I was growing up during the 1970s, my parents elected not to have a TV. Most of my extended family didn't have television either. As a result, much of my childhood was spent listening to radio and playing boardgames with brothers, cousins, and friends — just as children in the 1930s might have done.)

I'm not saying that there aren't people who have it rough in modern America — there are altyd people who struggle! — but I think it's important to have some perspective before grousing about how awful the world is today.

The Great Depression People

Roosevelt held the presidency from 1934 to 1945, leading the United States through the Great Depression and World War II. His legislative program, the New Deal, greatly expanded the role of the federal government in American society.

At times, Roosevelt's New Deal incorporated watered-down elements of more radical political ideas that became popular during the Great Depression. Social Security was a less ambitious version of the Townsend Plan, while the largely symbolic 1935 "Wealth Tax" was clearly designed to co-opt supporters of Huey Long's Share the Wealth program.

Charles Coughlin

Father Charles Coughlin (1891&ndash1979) was a Roman Catholic priest who became a national celebrity during the 1930s by hosting a popular radio broadcast.

By the middle of the 1930s, Coughlin attracted between 30 and 45 million listeners a week, making him one of America's most influential opinion-makers.

Coughlin started as a zealous supporter of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, going so far as to call the New Deal, "Christ's Deal." Later, however, Coughlin became disenchanted with Roosevelt's leadership and began to espouse extreme right-wing views. By the late 1930s, he'd become an outright fascist sympathizer.

Huey P. Long

Huey P. Long (1893&ndash1935) was a charismatic Louisiana politician who served as both governor and U.S. senator in the early 1930s.

A popular&mdashif also, in the eyes of his critics at least, corrupt and demagogic&mdashpolitician, Long's career was cut short when he was assassinated inside the Louisiana statehouse in 1935. Long was also the inspiration for Robert Penn Warren's Pulitzer prize-winning novel Al die King's Men, published in 1946.

Long rose to national prominence during the Great Depression by becoming the country's most impassioned advocate of redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor. More than 7 million Americans joined Long's Share Our Wealth clubs.

Fritz Kuhn

Fritz Kuhn (1896&ndash1951), a German-born immigrant to the United States, was the head of the pro-Nazi German-American Bund in the late 1930s.

The country's leading Nazi sympathizer, Kuhn called himself "America's Führer."

Under Kuhn's leadership, the German-American Bund sought to bring Nazi-style fascism to America. While Hitler certainly had his admirers in American society during the 1930s, the Bund was never successful at attracting support beyond the German ethnic community. In particular, Kuhn's virulent anti-Semitism may have been off-putting to potential American supporters.

Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884&ndash1962) was the wife of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, and a world-renowned advocate of liberal causes in her own right. She became an early hero of the Civil Rights Movement, and was a lifelong advocate for the United Nations.

During her husband's presidency, Eleanor Roosevelt broke new ground for a First Lady by holding her own press conferences, traveling independently to all parts of the country, writing a syndicated newspaper column, and broadcasting radio addreses.

In so doing, she became something of a political leader in her own right, often staking out positions somewhat more liberal than those of her husband. After Franklin Roosevelt's death in 1945, Eleanor continued to speak out as an influential spokesperson for liberal ideals until her own death in 1962.

Lorena Hickok

Lorena Hickok (1893&ndash1968) was one of America's most prominent female journalists during the 1930s.

The only woman assigned to cover the Roosevelt campaign in 1932, Hickok struck up a very close relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt, becoming the First Lady's most intimate friend and&mdashsome scholars believe&mdashperhaps her lesbian lover.

During Franklin Roosevelt's first term, Hickok left her journalism career to work as the administration's eyes on the ground, chronicling the conditions of everyday life in Depression-struck America. Traveling all across the country, she filed a series of reports sent to federal relief administrator Harry Hopkins, providing vivid descriptions of the miseries endured by the American people during the Great Depression.

Upton Sinclair

Upton Sinclair (1878&ndash1968) was an author and socialist political activist. His best known work is The Jungle, a 1906 muckraking assault on the unsanitary and inhumane conditions in the meatpacking industry.

In 1934, Sinclair ran for governor of California on a utopian platform called End Poverty in California (EPIC), which called for unemployed citizens to work in state-sponsored collective factories and farms to produce goods for their own use.

Surprisingly, Sinclair won the Democratic primary on this radical platform before losing the general election to Republican Frank Merriam.

Francis Townsend

Dr. Francis Townsend (1867&ndash1960) was an American physician who devised the Townsend Plan, a popular proposal for state-funded old-age pensions.

The plan promised to end the Great Depression by opening up jobs for younger workers, while forcing seniors to spend more money in the consumer economy.

In the mid-1930s, Townsend rose from complete obscurity to become the leader of a political movement that claimed the support of more than 25 million Americans. The Roosevelt administration eventually adopted a more austere version of the Townsend Plan when it created the Social Security program.