US Culture: The Depression Era

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

In the United States, the phrase "Great Depression" calls to mind itinerant sharecroppers and ramshackle houses, unemployment lines and labor strikes, fireside chats and WPA murals. Drawing on a wide variety of primary source materials, this course examines the Depression Era (1929 to 1941, roughly) in myth and reality. It also considers why this period retains a powerful hold on national memory, particularly in our era of renewed economic uncertainty. Writings by Carlos Bulosan, William Faulkner, Eudora Welty, and Richard Wright; photographs by Margaret Bourke-White, Walker Evans, and Dorthea Lange; films by Frank Capra, Howard Hawks, and Preston Sturges--among many others. Students interested in interdisciplinary approaches to American culture and history are particularly encouraged to enroll.