This month marks the 80th anniversary of the stock market crash that many people believe kicked off the Great Depression. With the current economy in a recession, parallels abound. But though there may be similarities between now and then, some say the Great Depression was an event like no other.
“People just don’t realize how much worse off people were during the Great Depression,” said Roger Hall, professor of history at Allan Hancock College. “As a country, we are so much more well-off now and attuned to the needs of the poor.”
In those days, people fought to reduce their working time to 55 hours a week, and there were no child labor laws. Families came together for rent parties to help neighbors stay in their homes. Creative types with flexible morals turned their minds to criminality to help their families.
Hall prepared a lecture that shows just how worse off people were during the Depression. The talk, titled “Hitting Home: Life During America’s Great Depression,” kicks off a lecture series on the infamous period of this nation’s history.
Hall isn’t so much going to explain the mechanics of how the Depression started, but rather how people coped with it. Using anecdotes and slides, he’ll paint a picture of the struggles and the strength of the American people during that time.
“People these days can’t fathom the extent people suffered during the Depression,” he explained. “There were nearly entire cities out of work and nobody coming to the rescue, and they were told, ‘Well, just cope with it.’ So my part of the lecture series is the coping part and how they did that.”
What really stands out to Hall is the spirit Americans had at the time: “They really stuck with the American system, with all its inequalities—the wealth of the few and the large number of poor. They didn’t want to give up capitalism,” he said.
He’ll also discuss “The Migrant Mother,” that woman in the photo taken by Dorothea Lange at a Nipomo encampment and what happened to her after the iconic photo was taken.
In addition to the lecture series, the college has planned other events in recognition of the Great Depression’s anniversary. Hancock has teamed up with the Santa Maria and Lompoc public libraries to participate in the Community Reads project, a month-long event focusing on Little Heathens, by Mildred Kalish. The New York Times bestseller focuses on one woman’s experiences growing up on a farm in rural Iowa during the Great Depression.
Faculty Librarian Kathy Headtke said the book has struck a chord with the public because of the current economy. Headtke herself knows several people who have lost jobs because of the current financial climate. Headtke—along with Kate Adams and Sandra Bierdzinski—teamed up with the Lompoc and Santa Maria libraries to host discussion groups about the book, culminating with a visit and book signing by the author on Oct. 28.
“For us, it’s exciting,” Headtke said. “The library has never coordinated and done one big thing altogether. But our goals are the same: to support literacy.” m
Arts Editor Shelly Cone is feeling great. Contact her at scone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Oct 1-8, 2009.
