Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression

Book 4 acts as an interlude, occupying only six full pages. The five interviewees featured here do not fit easily into any other book, chapter, or section, but they are connected to one another by several factors. The first three interviewees—Burgess, Green, and Lankford—never felt the Depression in the same way so many others did, albeit for different reasons. Burgess and Green fared well in their business ventures. Lankford, on the other hand, spent the entire Depression in jail. Even in prison, however, Lankford noticed a difference following the outbreak of the Second World War: “Long live the war. ‘Cause we were eating pretty good” (355). 

Another important factor here is the awareness of the European war situation on the part of Kane and Loy. Although Hard Times features numerous references to fascism and especially communism, these references nearly always occur in a domestic context involving fears of revolution. Since they are so unique, the recollections of Kane and Loy illustrate the degree to which most Depression survivors have compartmentalized their memories of the 1930s, as if the Depression’s onset, length, and severity had no relation to global events unfolding elsewhere.