Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression

The US stock market crash of October 24th and 29th, 1929, wiped out billions of dollars of market value in the worst financial panic of all time. Studs Terkel’s interviewees refer to it as simply “The Crash.” The event looms large in the memories of Depression-era survivors, for it is the one dramatic moment they associate with the start of the Depression. In reality, the market recovered some of its value until the spring of 1930, when stock prices again plummeted before bottoming out in the summer of 1932. Whether the Crash triggered the Depression, symbolized it, or merely paralleled other destructive events, such as bank failures, remains an open question.

The “New Deal” refers to measures adopted during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration that were designed to combat the worst effects of the Depression. These measures included legislation that created a series of new federal agencies charged with providing relief and spurring economic recovery. Supporters celebrate the New Deal for bringing jobs through agencies such as the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Critics cite the National Recovery Administration (NRA), which the Supreme Court declared unconstitutional, as an example of cartel-like arrangements that benefited producers at the expense of workers and consumers, as well as a harbinger of unwarranted government intrusion into the private-sector economy. Many of Terkel’s interviewees recall getting jobs through the WPA, and Book 3 features an entire chapter called “Concerning the New Deal.” Whether or not they approved of the New Deal, nearly all of Terkel’s interviewees agree that it was the Second World War, and not the New Deal, that ended the Depression.

“Populism” is a term that usually denotes political movements marked by rhetorical demagoguery, often based on an appeal to ordinary citizens to rise up against whatever is deemed part of the establishment, or political status quo. Populism exerted tremendous influence during the Depression. Populists argued that wealthy bankers, financiers, and business moguls had control of the US government through corrupt and well-placed public officials, and that these “moneyed interests” worked against the interests of the American people as a whole. In its general form, this argument appealed to farmers, working-class laborers, and even some middle-class Americans for decades. It had special resonance during the Depression years, as evidenced by the popularity of Father Charles Coughlin (See: Key Figures), Senator Huey Long, and Dr. Francis Townshend.