Great Depression Research Articles

“Red Gold” by Upton Sinclair and Piotr Pavlenko: Unwritten Soviet-American Novel

On April 16, 1938 Upton Sinclair sent a letter to the editors of the Soviet magazine International Literature, in which he shared the idea of a new novel Red Gold and asked to find him a co-author among Soviet writers. In his letter U. Sinclair gave a detailed synopsis of the novel: the plot was to be based on the story of a young American engineer who in the mid-1920s goes to Siberia to provide Soviet gold mining with the American technology. There on the banks of the river Lena he meets a Russian Bolshevik girl and they fall in love. As an American “bourgeois specialist” he used to believe that capitalism is the most effective social and economic system; his belief, however, was shaken in the course of ideological disputes with his girl-friend, and the Great Depression of the 1930s increased his doubts. Soviet partners proposed Piotr Pavlenko as co-author, and the writers began to exchange letters, discussing their future work and various details of the planned novel. The project was supervised by the Foreign Commission of the Soviet Writers’ Union; its functionaries reported to party and government organs (the Central Committee of the Communist Party, the Peopleʼs Commissariat of Foreign Affairs). Letters signed by Pavlenko were read, edited and approved at several levels of Soviet bureaucracy, from the Writersʼ Union to the Press Department of the Central Party Committee. Thus, Upton Sinclair, in fact, negotiated and argued not just with his co-author, but with a hierarchial administrative body with a strict chain of command. Due to the obvious discrepancy between his own and Soviet attitudes, Sinclair soon decided to abandon the idea of a “collective novel”. The study is based on the materials from the funds of the Russian State Archive of Arts and Literature (RGALI).

Economic Decisions and Cultural Trauma: A Sociological Exploration of Macro-level Policies and Societal Perceptions

The article delves into the intricate relationship between macroeconomic policies and cultural trauma. It argues that economic decisions, typically confined to corporate and legislative realms, significantly impact communities by shaping collective memories, identities, and psychological distress. The study highlights historical events like The Great Depression and the COVID-19 pandemic, underscoring their transformative impacts on societal consciousness and cultural narratives. The article emphasizes the role of macroeconomic choices, such as fiscal policies and trade agreements, in creating collective experiences that transcend economic outcomes. Using examples like trade liberalization in Brazil, it demonstrates how economic policies can lead to diverse societal perceptions and narratives. The article also examines the role of media, public discourse, and societal leaders in shaping public perceptions of these decisions. Central to the study are the contributions of cultural sociologists like Jeffrey C. Alexander, who propose that cultural trauma arises more from societal narratives around an event rather than the event itself. The study stresses the need for a comprehensive approach that integrates economic analysis with sociological insights, highlighting the importance of understanding economic decisions beyond their immediate financial implications. Conclusively, the article posits that macroeconomic decisions have profound and lasting impacts on societies, influencing collective identities and memories. It advocates for policies and scholarly approaches that acknowledge the broader societal ramifications of these decisions.

The Crisis of the 1930s and American Antisemitism

Abstract This article explores the economic and psychological impact of the Great Depression on the American population, emphasizing the rise of antisemitism during the 1930s. We begin with a historical overview of the economic downturn following the Wall Street Crash of 1929, with an emphasis on the ensuing unemployment and social despair. We argue that the representation of the Great Depression diverged from reality, with public discourse constructing an ‘imagined crisis’ that amplified fears and uncertainties. This crisis rhetoric led to the scapegoating of the Jewish community, which was unjustly blamed for the nation’s hardships. The article provides an in-depth analysis of how Henry Ford’s dissemination of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and Father Charles E. Coughlin’s radio broadcasts contributed to spreading antisemitic sentiments by exploiting economic anxieties and promoting a narrative of Jewish conspiracy. Furthermore, the article discusses the historical context of American antisemitism, identifying it as a complex phenomenon influenced by various factors, including religious, economic, and political antisemitism. Despite efforts to combat antisemitic rhetoric, figures like Ford and Coughlin played a significant role in shaping public perceptions and directing blame towards the Jewish community during times of crisis. We conclude that the crisis of the 1930s, marked by unprecedented economic hardship and social unrest, was exacerbated by ideological discourses that targeted Jews as scapegoats, reflecting a disturbing pattern of prejudice and discrimination that has echoed into contemporary times.

Labor Market Effects of Workweek Restrictions: Evidence from the Great Depression

We study the effects of restrictions on the length of the workweek under the President’s Reemployment Agreement (PRA) of July 1933 and the National Industrial Recovery Act. We construct a model in which the equilibrium without such a workweek restriction has an inefficiently low level of employment. We find that employment rose by about 24 percent in the month following the imposition of the workweek restriction. Industries with longer workweeks pre-PRA experienced 9.4 percent faster growth in hourly earnings post-PRA, but this increase was not sufficient to prevent a relative fall in weekly earnings in these industries. (JEL E24, E32, J22, J31, N12, N31)

Changing the Trade and Development Consensus: Evidence Building from Little, Bhagwati, Krueger, and Balassa in the 1960s

Economists became skeptical about the benefits of free trade for developing countries during the Great Depression, but in the 1960s some had come to recognize the problems with import substitution policies and the benefits of encouraging exports. This article examines how four economists who led this transition—Ian Little, Jagdish Bhagwati, Anne Krueger, and Bela Balassa—came to their views and helped build a new professional consensus on trade policy and economic development. In each case, practical experience, and empirical observation, particularly from India, helped shape their opinions, persuading two of the four to revise their previous beliefs.

Disgendered

In US literary history, the Great Depression stands as a wellspring of poetry and prose that imagines homelessness otherwise, that reads the embodiments and relationalities of homeless dispossession as an abolitionist horizon, cutting across the structural, epistemic violence of urban sociology, welfare bureaucracy, and the carceral state as well as practicing radical alternatives of relating to housing. Arguably influenced by discourses on subproletarian pathology, myriad Depression-era writers regarded the homeless as bereft of futurity, and they understood the condition of unhoused immiseration as a state of social death that marked the homeless as kinless. This literary vein conceived of homelessness as a disgendering experience in which the homeless body becomes an aberration from the heteropatriarchal gender binary. Alongside this literature of homeless nonfuturity, this article locates a literary countercurrent that explores how homeless persons continue to build kinships and collective futures that manifest through and exceed their bare existence. In particular, the article examines the poem “Homeless but Not Motherless” (1935) and the novel The Girl (ca. 1939), finding in both a recognition not only of the disgendering violence of homelessness but also of the potentialities for forging kinship across exclusions from labor, housing, family, and civil society.

Turkish Public Diplomacy in the Minutes of the Turkish Grand National Assembly (1931-1938)

For the young Republic of Turkey, the 1930s were a test of international public diplomacy. Turkey, which based its domestic and foreign policy on the principle of “Peace at home, peace in the world!”, was also concerned about its own future with the dictatorial regimes of Germany, Russia and Italy, which had distanced themselves from democratic governance and entered into an arms race with a sense of revenge, as well as the public diplomacy it would conduct and the measures it would take with the countries in its region. During the First World War, the country had suffered great devastation. The Turkish nation had spent everything it had in the struggle for liberation and was almost exhausted. However, it had managed to build a democratic state based on “National Sovereignty” despite the great economic depression that engulfed the world. However, the political developments in Europe and the possibility of the Republic of Turkey entering into a new chaos with the approaching World War could have destroyed all the gains and the future of the country. The task of protecting Turkey from this impending danger and keeping it safe could only be possible with the rational policies pursued by President Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the correct decisions taken by the Turkish Grand National Assembly in line with these policies. The aim of this study is to examine the Turkish public diplomacy as reflected in the minutes of the Turkish Grand National Assembly of Turkey between 1932 and 1938 in order to prevent Turkey's involvement in the upcoming great war and to secure its gains with measures to ensure its security in the region.

Reading The Dissolution of Traditional Family Values through Harold Pinter’s Betrayal

This paper examines the disintegration of traditional British family values as reflected in Harold Pinter’s play Betrayal (1978). Historical events like the world wars and the Great Depression, along with advancements in technology, have profoundly influenced the Theater of the Absurd by deepening its exploration of existential themes and enhancing its stage capabilities. The devastating effects of wars have deeply impacted the disintegration of society and the fragmentation of the collective spirit, significantly affecting the institution of the family as well. The play vividly portrays the erosion of familial structures, with characters betraying each other in a bid to fill the void left by social upheavals. The paper explores the evolution of British family dynamics from the 1950s onwards. It further conducts a textual analysis of Betrayal, focusing on themes of dysfunctional families, self-betrayal, and communication breakdowns. The paper ultimately argues that the fragmentation of family values depicted in Betrayal mirrors the broader social disintegration post-WWII. The traditional family, once a foundation of stability, is portrayed as increasingly susceptible to internal and external pressures, leading to its eventual collapse. This study provides a critical insight into the transformations of family unit during post-war Britain and their representation in modern drama.

‘Chifley spells security’: Tracing the Origins of Contemporary Australian Security Discourse

Strong claims have been made about the significance of the concept of security in modern governance. The study of security has developed from its post-1945 focus on the state’s role in securing the population from external threat to include broader and critical perspectives, which seek to embed the concept of security in its cultural and historical contexts. This article traces the origins of contemporary security culture in Australia to the first half of the twentieth century. It examines the concept of security from debates about the provision of national insurance and the amelioration of the suffering of the Great Depression to the Curtin and Chifley Labor governments’ postwar reconstruction program in the 1940s. The article argues that the origins of national security culture in the present lie in mid-twentieth-century debates about the role of the state in securing the population from economic deprivation, unemployment and ill health.

Could Diffusion Indexes Have Forecasted the Great Depression?

ABSTRACTWas the Depression forecastable? In this paper, we test how effective diffusion indexes are in forecasting the deepest recession in US history: the Great Depression. In a seminal paper, Moore considered the effectiveness of diffusion indexes, though retrospectively and not out‐of‐sample. We reconstruct Moore's diffusion indexes for this historical period and make our own comparable indexes for out‐of‐sample predictions. We find that diffusion indexes, including the horizon‐specific ones we produce, can nowcast turning points fairly well. Forecasting remains difficult, but our results suggest that the initial downturn in 1929 may be forecastable months before the Great Crash. This is a novel result, as previous authors had generally found the Depression was not forecastable.

A - 99 Examining the Relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences, Neuropsychological Functioning, and Neurocognitive Status among Older Adults

Abstract Objective Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with poorer cognitive and mental health outcomes in adulthood. However, there is limited research elucidating the relationship between ACE severity and specific neuropsychological outcomes among examinees with cognitive impairment. This study assessed the relationship between ACE exposure and cognitive and psychiatric outcomes among older adults with and without cognitive impairment. Method This cross-sectional study included 75 patients (64% female; MAge = 67, SD = 8.6; MEducation = 12.8, SD = 3.2) undergoing neuropsychological evaluation at an academic medical center. Analyses of variance (ANOVAs) compared high versus low ACE groups on specific tests of verbal fluency, processing speed, working memory, executive functions, and on depression and anxiety measures. Groups were formed based on neurocognitive status (i.e., no diagnosis, mild cognitive impairment, dementia) and ANOVAs were re-run for each diagnosis. Results No significant differences were detected on neurocognitive measures among the overall group or when groups were subdivided by diagnosis. Among the overall sample, significant group differences were detected for depression and anxiety symptoms, F(1,73) = 16.696, p < 0.001 and F(1,73) = 12.268, p = 0.001 respectively, such that higher ACE groups endorsed significantly more psychiatric symptoms. Among the no-diagnosis group, depressive symptoms were bordering insignificance, p = 0.048, and no differences were detected for anxiety. By contrast, higher ACEs were associated with greater anxiety among the mild cognitive impairment group and greater depression among the dementia group. Conclusions Findings reinforce the impact of ACEs on psychiatric symptoms among older adults. Although there were no significant cognitive differences, further research is necessary to better understand the relationship between ACEs, neurocognitive impairment, and psychiatric functioning.

Depression and anxiety among K-12 teachers in the United States: A systematic review.

Teachers experience high levels of stress and burnout; however, it is less clear whether teachers also experience high levels of depression and anxiety. The purpose of this systematic review was to describe the literature examining depression and anxiety among K-12 teachers in the United States, with a focus on (a) identifying factors that may be associated with and (b) describing interventions aimed at improving depression and/or anxiety among teachers. A literature search was conducted in January 2022 using APA PsycInfo, ERIC, CINAHL, Web of Science, and PubMed. Studies were eligible if they (a) measured U.S. K-12 teachers as an outcome; (b) measured teacher depression or anxiety; (c) were available in English; and (d) were published between 2000 and 2021. Two coders extracted key study information and assessed the risk of bias using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale for observational studies and the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force checklist for clinical trials. This review included 19 studies (10 cross-sectional, four longitudinal, and five interventions). Studies indicated that teachers may experience greater levels of depression and anxiety than the general population. High perceived stress, poor coping skills, more student problem behaviors, and poor school climate were associated with greater depression and anxiety among teachers. Interventions achieved small to large reductions in depression and anxiety. This review suggests that several factors are related to depression and anxiety among teachers and is limited by the few studies that met the inclusion criteria. Interventions that use multilevel approaches to improve teacher mental health may be needed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

PETER DRUCKER: MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER FOR TODAY’S LEADERS

AbstractThe author, Research Director of the Management as a Liberal Art Research Institute, has studied directly under Peter Drucker and has written books about him. In assessing Drucker’s work and legacy in a context for today’s leaders, she notes that he “was shaped by the disruptions of World War I, the rise of Nazi Germany, the Great Depression, World War II, and the growth of the United States as a post‐war industrial powerhouse. Given the degree of uncertainty he experienced in the first 35 years of his life, it is not surprising that Drucker sought a path to navigate the rough waters of instability and change.” Regarding his personal/career longevity, “his devotion to lifelong learning and his genuine interest in the lives of so many people helped him produce timely and important work well into his eighties and nineties.” She further discusses Drucker’s work as a social theorist, in management as a human activity, evolving views on leadership, the knowledge society, innovation, the public sector, technology, and the future. Regarding the latter, “decisions regarding advancement must be made with an eye on social costs and benefits, the limitations of technological innovations, and the historical, social, and cultural context of technological innovation.”

The Great Depression as a Savings Glut

New data covering 23 countries reveal that banking crises of the Great Depression coincided with a sharp international increase in deposits at savings institutions and life insurance. Deposits fled from commercial banks to alternative forms of savings. This fueled a credit crunch since other institutions did not replace bank lending. While asset prices fell, savings held in savings institutions and life insurance companies increased as a share of GDP and in real terms. These findings provide new explanations for the fall in credit and aggregate demand in the 1930s. They illustrate the need to consider nonbank financial institutions when studying banking crises.

The Memory of Financial Crises: Financial Actors and Global Risk ( MERCATOR)

The last hundred years have been marked by a number of financial crises, from the Great Depression of the 1930s to the global financial crisis of 2008. Researchers in the Mercator project are looking at the way these events are remembered and how memories of them influence the bankers of today, as Professor Youssef Cassis explains.

In Defense of Central Bank Independence against its Enthusiasts

The problem of time inconsistency provides the basic economic rationale behind the independence of central banks, understood as the most suitable institutional mechanism for ensuring price stability. According to the consensus that emerged in the 1990s and the 2000s, endowing the central bank with independent decision-making authority over the use of monetary policy instruments, with a mandate for price stability, enhances the effectiveness of monetary policy and reduces the inflation volatility. It may be surprising that criticisms of the once almost sacrosanct independence arise after the Great Financial Crisis, when it is widely recognized that central banks “saved the world” from repeating the Great Depression of the 1930s. The paper is an attempt to explain the rationale why these cracks in the consensus have arisen and offers suggestions what to do about it. Independence has an economic basis that is as solid as its political foundation is fragile, because central banks are unelected power. And in the realm of economics and politics, the political economy of central banking may help us understand the evolution of the degree and the specific form of independence because of both internal and external political and economic constraints. The paper examines these issues in some detail, to contextualize the economic and non-economic threats to independence and discusses possible mitigants. Properly assessing the challenges is a prerequisite for preserving the value of this institution, which is perhaps the most important and effective institutional innovation of our time in macroeconomic policy.

Irish GDP since independence

AbstractThis paper constructs annual gross domestic product (GDP) estimates for Ireland (1924–47) to join the first complete official aggregates. The new series is deployed to revisit Ireland's economic performance in the post‐independence decades. Ireland's economy grew at just under 1.5 per cent per annum and average living standards improved by 40 per cent. The bulk of this was due to labour productivity improvements. Starting in 1924 captures the civil war recovery and paints a more positive picture of the 1920s, whilst the traditional narrative of a ‛mild’ Great Depression is upheld. The 1930s recovery was aided by strong contributions from services and industry, whilst the economy contracted by almost 7 per cent during the ‛Emergency’. Though supporting O'Rourke's view that Irish growth was not unique against European peers, the new data provide evidence of stronger convergence against UK regions. Industry contributed most to growth during the period, growing at 3.6 per cent per annum. The equivalent rate for services was 1.3 per cent, though it contributed substantially during recovery periods. Agricultural output hardly changed due to its post‐war contraction. This paper joins a growing number of studies that suggest that Ireland was poorer at independence than previously believed.

Mental health problems raise the odds of cognitive impairment in COVID-19 survivors.

COVID-19 survivors around the globe are suffering from mental health issues. While mental health problems can be an early warning sign of dementia, they may also increase the chances of developing the disease. In this study, we examined the mental health of COVID-19 survivors and mapped its associations with cognitive and demographic variables. COVID-19 survivors listed in the databases of three tertiary care hospitals in Kolkata were contacted sequentially. 376 willing patients were interviewed over the telephone. 99 COVID-19 patients and 31 matched controls participated in the in-person interviews that were arranged for a more detailed investigation. The participants were administered standardized tests that are widely used for the assessment of cognitive functioning and mental health status. 64.89% of COVID-19 survivors reported a deterioration in physical functioning. 44.95% reported a decline in mental health, whereas 41.49% reported a drop in cognitive performance. Detailed investigations revealed that they had an increased risk of having depression, anxiety, and poor sleep quality by 91%, 68%, and 140%, respectively. 6.1% of the patients had mild cognitive impairment, and 4% had dementia. COVID-19 patients who had depression and anxiety were 8.6 and 19.4 times more likely to have cognitive decline, respectively. Compared to the matched controls, COVID-19 patients had greater depression (p<.001), anxiety (p<.001), stress (p =.003), and insomnia (p <.001). They also scored significantly lower on Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination-III (p =.009) and Picture Naming Test (p =.005) and took significantly longer to complete Trail Making Test-A (p =.002). COVID-19 survivors in this study had major mental health issues even one year after contracting the virus. They had significant cognitive deficits that might progress into dementia. Strict monitoring and systematic treatment plans should be implemented as soon as possible.

The moral accounting of debts: productivity, deservingness and the consensual creation of Chapter XIII bankruptcy

Abstract Chapter XIII’s wage-earner payment plans are now the default form of personal bankruptcy in the USA. During the Great Depression, it was created as a voluntary choice and enacted with unanimous legislative support. Absent conflict between creditors and labor and social reformers, legislators agreed that Chapter XIII was for the benefit of both honorable insolvents and their fair creditors. How did wage-earner payment plans emerge out of a consensual legislative process? Employing a computational abductive approach on a wide range of legislative, media and bankruptcy records, I show that Chapter XIII’s creation was facilitated by a ‘moral accounting’ that, based on their race and gender identities, positively evaluated most White men bankruptcy petitioners as ‘deserving’, even as it recognized occupational variations in their economic ‘productivity’. This study highlights how racial discourses of ‘deservingness’ are central to the construction of credit markets as part of America’s submerged welfare state.

Rosa Rayside and Domestic Workers in the Fight against War and Fascism

This article explores connections between domestic worker activism and anti-fascism in the United States—two topics that historians have usually considered separately. Through the lens of Black domestic worker and organizer Rosa Rayside, we see the strong links between the two political movements. In 1934, after co-founding the New York Domestic Workers Union (DWU), Rayside attended the World Congress of Women against War and Fascism in Paris. That congress defined fascism broadly, around nationalism, racism, repression of radicals, denial of civil liberties, capitalist and imperialist greed and warmongering, and threats to women. Notably, the congress specifically identified challenging U.S. racism and defending labor rights for domestic workers as part of a global anti-fascist fight. Influenced by this congress, and by communist organizing in Harlem during the Great Depression, Rayside and the DWU drew on anti-fascism ideologically and organizationally in the years that followed. Rayside worked to include domestic workers in labor and social security legislation, testifying before U.S. Congress in 1935 and helping to form the anti-fascist National Negro Congress (NNC) in 1936. Although their immediate legislative achievements were limited, the strategies that Rayside and the DWU pioneered—collaborating with community and political organizations, spearheading legislation, and shaping understandings of Black women’s “triple oppression” based on race, class, and gender—were vital to the Black anti-fascist movement in the United States and shaped gains by domestic workers in later decades.