Down and Out in the Great Depression - 2nd Edition by Robert S McElvaine (Paperback)

About the Book

Down and Out in the Great Depression: Letters from the Forgotten Man

Book Synopsis

Down and Out in the Great Depression is a moving, revealing collection of letters by the forgotten men, women, and children who suffered through one of the greatest periods of hardship in American history. Sifting through some 15,000 letters from government and private sources, Robert McElvaine has culled nearly 200 communications that best show the problems, thoughts, and emotions of ordinary people during this time.

Unlike views of Depression life "from the bottom up" that rely on recollections recorded several decades later, this book captures the daily anguish of people during the thirties. It puts the reader in direct contact with Depression victims, evoking a feeling of what it was like to live through this disaster.

Following Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration, both the number of letters received by the White House and the percentage of them coming from the poor were unprecedented. The average number of daily communications jumped to between 5,000 and 8,000, a trend that continued throughout the Rosevelt administration. The White House staff for answering such letters -- most of which were directed to FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, or Harry Hopkins -- quickly grew from one person to fifty.

Mainly because of his radio talks, many felt they knew the president personally and could confide in him. They viewed the Roosevelts as parent figures, offering solace, help, and protection. Roosevelt himself valued the letters, perceiving them as a way to gauge public sentiment. The writers came from a number of different groups -- middle-class people, blacks, rural residents, the elderly, and children. Their letters display emotional reactions to the Depression -- despair, cynicism, and anger -- and attitudes toward relief.

In his extensive introduction, McElvaine sets the stage for the letters, discussing their significance and some of the themes that emerge from them. By preserving their original spelling, syntax, grammar, and capitalization, he conveys their full flavor.

The Depression was far more than an economic collapse. It was the major personal event in the lives of tens of millions of Americans. McElvaine shows that, contrary to popular belief, many sufferers were not passive victims of history. Rather, he says, they were "also actors and, to an extent, playwrights, producers, and directors as well," taking an active role in trying to deal with their plight and solve their problems.

For this twenty-fifth anniversary edition, McElvaine provides a new foreword recounting the history of the book, its impact on the historiography of the Depression, and its continued importance today.

Review Quotes

"An enormously valuable and revealing document. . . . An experience that pays rich if painful rewards. The most obvious of these is that Down and Out in the Great Depression adds an important new dimension to our knowledge of a vastly important period in American history."--Washington Post Book Review

"First-rate explanatory essays by the editor."--The New Yorker

"McElvaine . . . has found and filled a gap. . . . [He] has brought the feelings of these invisible people to life."--St. Petersburg Times

"McElvaine . . . has produced [a] compelling, often poignant glimpse of America's mood during the Great Depression. . . . It makes a fitting memorial to 'the forgotten man.'"--Newsweek

"McElvaine is to be commended. . . . Down and Out in the Great Depression#is a remarkable testament to a time that no longer seems so distant and, at times, strikes awfully close to home."--Philadelphia Inquirer

"Robert S. McElvaine has compiled a fascinating, touching and above all illuminating book. . . . This book is a classic. No New Statesman reader should be without it."--New Statesman (London)