Review of SInce Yesterday :: essays research papers

Review of Frederick Lewis Allen Since Yesterday the 1930s America. (New York Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc., 1939), 362 pp.Frederick Lewis Allens volume tells in great detail how the average American would have lived in the 1930s. He covers everything from fashion to politics and everything in between. He opens with a portrait of American life on September 3, 1929, the day before the first major stock market crash. His telling of the events immediately preceding and following this crash, and the ensuing holy terror describe a scene which was unimaginable before. He quickly moves from the panic of 1929 to the 30s and how many of the popular governmental sentiments during the election were no long-life so. Hoover quickly moved from a position of public acceptance and admiration to that of a scapegoat. That the Depression was his fault is not entirely true, though. Hoover did not have much of the information needed to foretell the economic situation. In the laissez-faire form of g overnment he prescribed, there was no place for a department that would document these things for the use of the presidents office.Hoover is also vilified repeatedly for his inaction with the Depression. His personal policy and his partys policy were intentional to let the country find its own way, for if it became dependent on government aide, it would be a weaker nation that if it found its own way. This was a damage assumption on their behalf though, because even in the 1920s, there was a movement from many of the nations younger voters advocating change. The overall feeling that Mr. Allen explains so well up is that of fear. Many Americans were afraid of what might happen to them economically. There were cities where eighty-four percent of the working population was unemployed. Everywhere in the nation, banks were closing because of their inability to collect from debtors. This not only affected those working for the bank, it affected most people in the city as well. In small cities where there were only two or three banks, a third or half of the population could be without their life savings. Add to that high unemployment, and many people were left starving. Mr. Allen also speaks in depth of the farmers. The Farmers Holiday occurred when Milo Reno organized Iowan farmers and got them to refuse to bring food into Sioux City for thirty days, or until the cost of production had been obtained (86).