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I recently wrote about Grandma Donna’s blog and her Great Depression study. Unfortunately, she is experiencing some health issues and has had to stop for now. I would like to continue on and learn more about this time period in American history, so of course I compiled a list of books! This list has everything from first hand accounts to historical fiction novels. Let me know if you have a good Depression-era recommendation for me too!
1 // The Great Depression: A Diary by Benjamin Roth
“When the stock market crashed in 1929, Benjamin Roth was a young lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio. After he began to grasp the magnitude of what had happened to American economic life, he decided to set down his impressions in his diary.” This sounds fascinating to me. It also makes me want to jot down what’s happening in the world these days…maybe future generations will find them interesting too?
2 // The Hungry Years by T.H. Watkins
This chunky book “tells the story of the Great Depression through the eyes of the people who lived it.” I love that it draws upon oral histories, memoirs, and local news stories. I’m sure this is much to learn.
3 // The Worst Hard Time: The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl by Timothy Egan
If the economic depression wasn’t bad enough, the High Plains also suffered through an equally horrific natural phenomenon: the Dust Bowl. “Following a dozen families and their communities through the rise and fall of the region, Egan tells of their desperate attempts to carry on through blinding black dust blizzards, crop failure, and the death of loved ones.” Can you even imagine?
4 // The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression by Amity Shlaes
This is another nonfiction look at this time period and claims that it provides a new interpretation to the economic factors surrounding the Great Depression. I’m obviously not well versed in this area, so it may prove beneficial to see things from multiple angles and opinions.
5 // We Had Everything But Money by Deb Mulvey
The Great Depression can be quite heavy reading material, so how about a book with some lightheartedness and levity? The cover of this book says: “Priceless memories of the Great Depression…from strong people who tell in their own words what it was like when banks closed and hearts opened.” I’ve heard wonderful things about this one!
6 // Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
From the description: “So begins the luminous memoir of Frank McCourt, born in Depression-era Brooklyn to recent Irish immigrants and raised in the slums of Limerick, Ireland. Frank’s mother, Angela, has no money to feed the children since Frank’s father, Malachy, rarely works, and when he does he drinks his wages. Yet Malachy—exasperating, irresponsible, and beguiling—does nurture in Frank an appetite for the one thing he can provide: a story. Frank lives for his father’s tales of Cuchulain, who saved Ireland, and of the Angel on the Seventh Step, who brings his mother babies.” People have said this memoir is heart-breaking, but also beautiful.
7 // Sold on a Monday by Kristina McMorris
This historical fiction novel was inspired by an actual newspaper photograph depicting a sign that said, “Children For Sale.” I cannot imagine that level of desperation, can you? I’ve heard that this has a romance element to it, which might make or break the book for me. We’ll see.
8 // Wingwalkers by Taylor Brown
Another historical fiction, this time about a former WWI pilot and his wingwalker wife. Apparently, they are funding their journey west “by performing death-defying aerial stunts from town to town.” Sounds interesting.
9 // West with Giraffes by Lynda Rutledge
Listen to this description: “It’s 1938. The Great Depression lingers. Hitler is threatening Europe, and world-weary Americans long for wonder. They find it in two giraffes who miraculously survive a hurricane while crossing the Atlantic. What follows is a twelve-day road trip in a custom truck to deliver Southern California’s first giraffes to the San Diego Zoo.” This book is also based on a true story and blends real people with fictional ones. I can’t wait to get to this one.
