Children of the Great Depression

BIBLIOGRAPHY
Freedman, Russell. CHILDREN OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION. New York, NY: Clarion Books. ISBN 0618446303

SUMMARY
A short history of the Great Depression from the first person perspective of the nation's children. "Richly illustrated with classic archival photographs by such notable photographers as Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans" (jacket copy).

ANALYSIS
The combination of straightforward language, beautiful double page photo spreads, excellent source material and engaging first person accounts of life in Great Depression America make CHILDREN OF THE GREAT DEPRESSION a wonderful non-fiction book. Freedman doesn't talk down to his readers or underestimate their interest and intelligence. Most students will respond to the heartbreaking emotion in some of the pictures, such as "Unemployed youth" on page 9. And students who do not respond on an emotional level will be interested by the details of daily living that Freedman includes, such as the "Depression shopping list" and the chart of average annual earnings during the Depression (11). Students may be astonished that a used car could be purchased for $57.50.

Freedman covers the Great Depression from the perspective of many different segments of American society in eight chapters. The stories in "Kids at Work," and "In and Out of School" may really bring home the realities of being a child in that time period to children today. A teacher might ask them if they can imagine a time when they would have been heartbroken if they couldn't go to school. Freedman takes pains to examine how the Depression impacted children from many different ethnic and economic backgrounds. African American families were the hardest hit, as "black workers of any age were always 'the last hired and the first fired'" (49). The chapter "Okie, Go Home!" was very sad, but it can be good for students to see an unglossed version of our national history. Americans are not always happy to see immigrants, even immigrants from the Dust Bowl.

Freedman makes clear that most of life for many children in the Great Depression was endless work and hunger, but I also appreciated the inclusion of some other aspects of life. Students may relate to Depression era kids enjoying the Saturday serial with its cliffhanger, as well as the early Disney movies and The Wizard of Oz. Students might also be interested to learn the origins of the games marbles and jacks- games that "could be played anywhere without spending much money" (90). Throughout the book, Freedman includes letters sent to First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt from American children. It is clear that the nation, and especially the nation's children, looked on the Roosevelts as combined saviors and celebrities, and this personal correspondence brings home the daily struggles of the kids of the Depression in a heartbreaking way.

Freedman ends the book on an optimistic note, with "A Brighter Tomorrow," a chapter that highlights The Golden Gate International Exhibition and the New York World's Fair. These fairs both suggested that "American ingenuity would always triumph over hard times," and yet Freedman notes that in 1939, the Depression was not yet over (96). This chapter presents some of the changes that President Roosevelt made in the government of the country; banking regulation, Social Security, unemployment compensation, and laws regulating the financial markets. Freedman also notes that although Roosevelt was a controversial figure, he "gave people hope" (100). The true end of the Great Depression came with the beginning of "a different kind of crisis," the outbreak of World War II, which necessitated massive government spending and put every employable person to work (101). The children of the Great Depression went on to fight the battle of WWII, and then to come home and "build the strongest economy the United States had ever known" (101).

REVIEWS
"Few authors are as well suited as Freedman to present a clear and understandable outline of this period. His prose is straightforward and easily comprehensible, making sense of even the complexities of the stock-market crash. The use of primary sources is outstanding. This is a book told by chorus, featuring the voices of those who endured the Depression, and is embellished with black-and-white photos by such luminaries as Dorothea Lange, Ben Shahn, Walker Evans, and Russell Lee. " SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

""It's my sister's turn to eat," a hungry child tells her teacher. Quotes like that one bring home what it was like to be young and poor in Depression America. This stirring photo-essay combines such unforgettable personal details with a clear historical overview of the period and black-and-white photos by Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, and many others. As Freedman says, these images "convey in human terms the true meaning of economic statistics." His signature plainspoken prose does that, too, on every spacious, double-page spread, whether he is focusing on differences of race and class or on child sharecroppers, factory workers, migrant farm laborers, or boxcar kids." BOOKLIST

CONNECTIONS
This text would be a wonderful supplement to a unit on American history and the period of the Great Depression. It would be an interesting contrast to a unit on the opulence and extravagant lifestyles of the 1920s barons of industry. Students who may not take in the complicated causes of the financial crash will still engage with the personal stories and photographs of the children of the time. Since Freedman's book is compiled largely from oral histories, an interesting project for students would be to interview their own older relatives or family friends who were children during that time, or who remember the stories from their parents. Students could write a brief report of their experiences and share it with the class, or, they might make a recording to play for the class, and include any family pictures or ephemera from the time period.