New in the Charles Edmondson Historical Lectures Culture and Politics in the
Great Depression
by Alan Brinkley
Alan Brinkley considers the origins and development in the Great Depression of the idea of the “American Dream.” His aim is to inform the wide variance of what counts today as the American Dream by examining its beginnings.The dream as developed during the Great Depression was unattainable but still widely held up to encourage and motivate the population. The vision was one of middle-class stability, prosperity, and security.
Brinkley frames his presentation with four words that describe how the people of the United States coped with and lived through the Great Depression. Persistence, empathy, rebellion, and community shape his essay.
Brinkley invites the reader to pursue this era further by analyzing evidence from popular literature and film.
ALAN BRINKLEY is professor of history at Columbia University. He has previously been on the faculty at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. He is the author or co-author of six books and resides in New York City with his wife and daughter.
The Charles Edmondson Historical Lectures were established at Baylor University in 1977 by Dr. E. Bud Edmondson of Longview, Texas, to honor his father. Each spring the History Department of Baylor invites a leading scholar to campus to deliver the Edmondson Lectures. In recent years Baylor has hosted such scholars as Nell Irvin Painter, Franklin W. Knight, Jonathan D. Spence, and David N. Cannadine. Many of these lectures are still available from the Baylor University Press. These lectures make excellent supplementary texts for the classroom.
Culture and Politics in the Great Depression
ISBN 0-918954-72-X paper $5.956x9. 46 pp.
American History. Great Depression.Publication Date: September 1999.
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