Books on Depression Era Life?

[Foofoogal]

I have read Grapes of Wrath and John Steinbeck is my fav author but is there any other really good books from depression era time giving insight to daily living back then and how people did cope?

http://community.tasteofhome.com/forums/t/44025.aspx?PageIndex=8
found this depression era forum for recipes in looking for books. Interesting.

 

["Skeet" McD]

I have read Grapes of Wrath and John Steinbeck is my fav author but is there any other really good books from depression era time giving insight to daily living back then and how people did cope?

Dear FFG,
Are you looking only for fiction, or are you interested in history and/or autobiography as well?

"Skeet"

 

[Foofoogal]

Either or I guess. Not too thick or technical.

 

["Skeet" McD]

http://community.tasteofhome.com/forums/t/44025.aspx?PageIndex=8
found this depression era forum for recipes in looking for books. Interesting.

Dear FFG, Interestingly, the first thing that came to my mind was...a cookbook. A good third of it, however, is quotes of various lengths--usually pretty short--from informants about life during the Depression, most of them food-related in some way. The book is very Midwestern and heavily rural in its tone...and many of the quotes are repetitive...if I had a nickel for every time someone said "ice cream was only a nickel, but we never had a nickel" I could buy a lot of 1930s ice cream. But that repetition is significant....by the time you finish the book, you feel like you have a good idea for what was generally true, as well as a lot of very interesting individual details...and, of course...there are a lot of good recipes

Highly recommended on both counts. Here's the Amazon page:
http://www.amazon.com/Recipes-remembrances-Great-Depression-Thacker/dp/188394404X

"Skeet"

 

[LizzieMaine]

Three books I'd recommend to anyone with an interest in the everyday life of the Depression era:

Hard Times, by Studs Terkel.

Since Yesterday, by Frederick Lewis Allen

The Glory and the Dream, by William Manchester.

Read those three and you'll have as firm a grounding on the American experience during the Depression years as anyone.

 

[Foofoogal]

Thank you both.

 

[Chas]

Ten Lost Years by Barry Broadfoot; a wonderful oral history.

 

[RBH]

" Let Us Now Praise Famous Men " by James Agee is pretty good {1941}.



http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Let-Us-Now-Praise-Famous-Men/James-Agee/e/9780618127498

 

[SSuperDave]

"Appointment in Sammara" by John O'Hara.