Depression Books

President Franklin Roosevelt, confronted with the hardship of millions of unemployed Americans and radical political ideas blossoming around the world, put millions of unemployed Americans to work building bridges, roads, buildings and other elements of America's infrastructure. These fine work projects are seen across America and represent a hard period in American history, and a period of hope and achievement.

I found this H-Net review of this book on the Internet.

"Carroll Van West. Tennessee's New Deal Landscape: A Guidebook.
Reviewed by Edward Salo, Geo-Marine, Inc.
Published by H-Tennessee (September, 2002)

"Creating a Modern Tennessee through the New Deal
When most people think of the New Deal's impact on Tennessee, the concrete dams of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) are the image that comes to mind. However, like many states, Tennessee's public landscape was drastically affected in other ways by a variety of New Deal projects. In Tennessee's New Deal Landscape, Dr. Carroll Van West, project director for the Center for Historic Preservation, Middle Tennessee State University, examines over 250 of Tennessee's historic sites constructed during the New Deal and uses that information to catalogue how Depression-era federal government work changed the built environment of the state. West's book serves both as a heritage tourism guidebook and as a scholarly work. It also succeeds in illustrating how "New Deal agencies transformed the state's public landscape, leaving in their wake the infrastructure for the emergence of a modern--and different--Tennessee" (p. xii).

"Students of Tennessee's cultural landscapes and historic preservation will be familiar with West's earlier scholarship. Because of his work at the Center for Historic Preservation, West has either written about or is familiar with most of the New Deal historic properties in the state. His previous book, Tennessee's Historic Landscapes, is the definitive study on the different historic landscapes across the state. West's new contribution focuses exclusively on the historic properties that were constructed during the New Deal era in Tennessee. He has mined both primary and secondary sources on Tennessee's New Deal experience, including TVA records, the WPA guidebook on Tennessee, cultural resource reports, and National Register of Historic Properties nominations to produce a similarly authoritative examination of the state during the 1930s.

"In his first chapter, West presents a short thematic history of the New Deal, identifying the ten major New Deal agencies that worked in Tennessee. Unlike his previous book, which looked at the state's regions, he divides New Deal Landscapes into chapters based on the resource's property type. The next seven chapters include discussions of state offices and county courthouses; federal courthouses and post offices; community buildings and institutions; schools; housing; parks, memorials, and museums; and infrastructure. Each chapter contains a short narrative focusing on political, cultural, and social patterns that influenced the resources, as well as individual descriptions of other examples across the state, organized alphabetically by county. By not designating the properties as belonging to West, Middle, and East Tennessee, West makes his information accessible to those unfamiliar with Tennessee's traditional geographic divisions. A bibliographical essay also directs readers to important sources for further research.

"West makes it clear in his preface that the book is not comprehensive. The examples he uses are fairly divided between the rural and urban sections of the state. Many of the properties discussed in the chapters are representative and are not the only examples in the state. The identification and description of New Deal property types, however, is one of the book's strengths, making it easier for local historians to examine Depression-era landscape and distinguish significant buildings.

"The examples that West uses illustrate two interpretations of the New Deal in Tennessee: construction and destruction. Although many projects created new buildings, some, such as the TVA dams, also destroyed rural areas and displaced people from their traditional homes. Additionally, the construction of TVA lakes disrupted rural life, while also laying the groundwork for Tennessee's economic growth during World War II and the Cold War. This dichotomy shaped many Tennesseans' attitude toward the federal government both during and after the New Deal years.

"Although the book's only problems are cosmetic in nature, a few changes would have helped the reader. First, all of the pictures in the book are modern, but many readers would appreciate historic views of some of the buildings. Additionally, sidebars with brief descriptions of architectural elements or styles (for example, WPA Moderne style) would have made the book more accessible to laymen. Also, with the growing interest in environmental history, West's discussion of the creation of state parks and soil conservation only begs for more study.

"The study of New Deal landscape has bloomed during the 1990s. Many state historic preservation offices have developed New Deal theme studies to assist in placing 1930s properties on the National Register of Historic Places. Although these theme studies are helpful for historic preservation planning, they are not easily accessible to the public. Public historians should use West's book as an example on how better to communicate historic landscapes to the general public. The book takes "gray literature" and presents it in a manner that is useful. The framework that West has developed also lends itself to other possible historic themes, such as railroads, military, agriculture, industrial, and ethnic landscapes. This book should be read by public historians not only for the content but also for the methodology."

I have purchased a number of CBT Guides to expand my repertoire of therapeutic activities in my practice and this one is excellent, when purchased with the companion workbook. The workbook has nice reproducables to use in sessions. The explanations of how to include the activities in your counseling sessions is very clearly written. I would recommend this product for psychologists working with elementary-aged students.

It will only take a few pages for you to feel like you are in the middle of a conversation with a beloved, livelong friend. The advice and suggestions are practical, easily achievable and produce eternal results. Read this book with the expectation you will be changed forever, you won't be disappointed.

In this thought-provoking, easy to read book, Dr. Ang and Mr. Auer suggest some cultural and biochemical bases for depression; not the garden variety, mind you, but true suicidal depression. While most depressive patients can be helped by spiritual counseling, medications, and/or psychotherapy, a small percentage simply continue to see death as the only solution. Among these are some very spiritual people who want dearly to serve God and to please Him. This book explores some of the paradoxes involved in their stuggles, and treats depression with respect, rather than offering a sermon or a cure-all.

It was informative and very interesting. It's nice to know where to find realiable information.

I pick it up, I start leafing through it, and I can't put it down. I want to own all of these images in the originals. I like this book.

In 1939 Craven edited this astonishing accumulation of American prints and lithographs.

This was a middle-brow affair: quality reproductions of 100 prints from premier American artists on attractive, linen-like, buff paper in a spiral binding in slipcase. The book explains that the binding was designed to allow purchasers to easily detach prints and frame them.

(So, heads up, collectors -- many copies have missing prints. One of the oddities of the 1st edition is that, while the plates themselves total 100, the List of Plates index appears to stop at 99; the last plate is out of alphabetical order -- Good's "Valse Brillante.")

There's not an abstract print to be found here. Outside of that, it is difficult to generalize about this rich collection of images. They are excecuted in many styles. They contain a balance between portrait, landscape, but mostly depict Americans in utterly American environments: on the road, in their homes, in cities, in the land. This was produced at the end of the Great Depression, after all, and there is an heroic yet unfiltered eye directed to the American spirit in much of this work.

Here's how Craven puts it in his introduction. He maintains that now American art has become, well, American art -- "a decisive victory over provincial ignorance, anemic imitation, cheap internationalism, and the postwar hang-over of esthetic snobbery [1920's decadence?]."

The following artists have at least one plate in this book: Peggy Bacon, Thomas Benton, Aaron Bohrod, Alexander Brook, Andrew Butler, Howard Cook, John Curry, Adolf Dehn, Wanda Gag, George Grosz, Edward Hopper, Kuniyoshi, Reginald Marsh, Boardman Robinson, John Sloan, Harry Wickey, Grant Wood, and Mahonri Young.

Although written basically for psychiatrists and other clinicians, "The Treatment of Recurrent Depression," edited by John F. Greden, MD, Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Michigan, is also beneficial to laymen interested in understanding depression and the various treatments available today.
The book actually consists of a series of chapters written by a variety of experts in the field, and includes such topics as: Advances in Brain Imaging; New and Integrated Treatments of Psychiatric Disorders; Recurrent Depression in Women; Pharmacotherapy and Psychotherapy Combinations; Prevention of Recurrences in Patients with Bi-Polar Disorder; and New Treatment Strategies.
Perhaps most interesting to the layman is Dr. Greden's introduction and his own included essay, "The Clinical Prevention of Recurrent Depression." In these he stresses the tremendous impact that recurrent depression has on our population. He issues the equivalent of a "call to arms," urging the need for a new paradigm for early detection, treatment and possible prevention.
As he says, "For success in stopping depression, we first must have success in improving detection." He stresses the need for early intervention and the development of tests to identify patients at risk for recurrences. He urges therapists to think long term, with maintenance treatments that are illness-focused, not episode focused. Most of all he urges the need for emphasizing adherence.
Patients, as well as family members and friends of patients, will benefit from this book. After reading it, they should realize there is a need to seek treatment for recurrent depression, to practice extended maintenance, and to approach recurrent depression as an on-going illness, just as one faces diabetes and heart disease.

This book questions the confines of temporality...it blurs the distinction between art, science, and life. It is a true signpost for the parallelism between existing genres and the net of cohesion that intertwines all aspects of being. Treatment of Tricyclic Resistant Depression has made my mind scale the high lights of understanding and reseat myself in the abyss of knowledge. It has showered me with units of belief with which I can chart the course of my future. There is no question, only an answer. It is this book.

Tree of Hope is a book about a girl named Florrie who grew up during the Great Depression. The Great Depression was a time when a lot of people were poor and many people lost the jobs they had. In the story Florrie's father once was an actor at the Lafayette Theatre in Harlem, New York. Now that the Depression has hit Florrie's father is without a job because people don't have money to go see the shows. The only thing her father has to remember about the good times at the theatre is a tree. In the book it is called The Tree of Hope. Her father tells her about the tree and then they wish on it, they wished times went back to the way they were.

Then a director Orson Welles plans to do a play at the Lafayette. Florrie thinks this has happened because of her and her father's wish. The only thing about it is that the play is MacBeth; MacBeth is a play about white people. People who knew that Florrie's father was auditioning for the play would say, "Shakespeare's a white man, we oughta only be doin' written `bout us. Them people (the white director's) at the Lafayette've come to Harlem just to laugh at us!" This statement seemed to get to Florrie's father but he said, "There will be plays written about us. This is Harlem's MacBeth-you'll see." To find out what else happens you will have to read the book.

The style of this poetry is unique to this author; the poems use few words to interpret vast feelings. While much poetry describes the writer's perception of things, this poet has an uncanny ability to actually illustrate, in verse, the intense feelings we all experience in life.