Introduction/Synopsis
In chapter sixteen of his book, Edward Robb Ellis explains American society’s reactions to the Great Depression. Ellis exemplifies such responses by introducing disagreements over whether that period is equal to war or much worse than armed conflicts in terms of the magnitude of the destruction (228). Through wealthy individuals’ personal stories, the author demonstrates the economic downturn’s unique ability to place the prosperous and the poor in a similar psychological situation. Moreover, the reading provides a detailed account of both the causes and the consequences of the employment crisis. It covers prominent unemployment research conducted in Pennsylvania to challenge Henry Ford’s ideas about voluntary unemployment. The author pays close attention to the downturn’s socio-psychological effects. These include marital tensions linked with husbands’ inability to play their prescribed gender role as providers, the changing patterns of power distribution in the family, and the growing marriage age. The country’s altering physical appearance, the conflict over the taxation of religious entities, and the erosion of freedom are also covered. This paper will analyze the reading’s significance to the country’s history and today’s life.
Relevance to American History
Understanding how economic pressures change society is crucially important when studying American history. The assigned reading captures the reactions and challenges of diverse social groups by depicting both kitchen-sink and philosophical extensions of the downturn, which maximizes its value in explaining the deep roots of the time’s tendencies. Unlike many authors, Ellis aims to uncover the many faces of the Great Depression, thus promoting a holistic understanding of its impact and how the challenges varied depending on a person’s social class (230). The information this reading provides is not necessarily hard to find in modern U.S. history classes or available only to a few individuals. Nevertheless, the way the facts are grouped and delivered could be conducive to students’ ability to develop a clearer picture of the catastrophic downturn’s influences on the nation’s and the poor population’s mentalities.
The topic is crucial to American history since the reactions to the Great Depression shed light on the era’s social trends and the unjustly neglected psychological implications. Instead of discussing the downturn only at the country’s level, for instance, emphasizing financial statistics and policymakers’ economic restoration proposals, Ellis covers the everyday meanings of the Great Depression (230). For non-wealthy families, such meanings varied from the inability to afford shoes to the psychological “castration” of low-income men and the destruction of the pillars of manhood, resulting in women’s disrespect for husbands (Ellis 234). In stark contrast with survival-based everyday problems, there were large-scale management and strategic issues, including the impending anti-free-enterprise moods among the wealthy (Ellis 229). Despite some remaining questions, such as how the crisis altered the balance of power nationally, the reading highlights the downturn’s influences on dissimilar parts of American society, thus increasing modern Americans’ historical literacy.
Relation to Modern Life
Regarding relevance, one important thing the reading explains about the U.S. today is the unproductiveness of the blame-shifting culture in resolving major crises that require concerted efforts. Ellis expands on authoritative business owners’ and scientists’ anti-national rhetorics (250). He mentions Ford’s and Babson’s ideas of the poverty mentality that view economic downturns as a just punishment for expecting too much from more resourceful classes (Ellis 250). Decades have passed, but the culture of blame deflection continues to exist, representing America’s unending challenges as a socially and ethnically heterogeneous country. As per current qualitative research, responses to COVID-19 in the U.S. are influenced by anti-Asian xenophobia and anti-government theories to present the pandemic as a pretext for limiting individual freedom (Hardy et al. 1). At the same time, “the indispensable role of government” in battling crises is cited as the key lesson of the Great Depression that should not be ignored in today’s realia (Selgin 5). Similar to the blame game between the authorities, employers, and workers during the Great Depression, today’s situation with battling COVID-19 is hindered by the lack of a holistic approach to effective role distribution and cooperation.
Conclusion/Opinion
By reviewing large-scale changes related to the Great Depression, the assigned chapter provides valuable insights into the U.S. mentality, internal conflicts, and group dynamics, some of which are applicable to modern-day national crises. Regarding personal opinions and impressions, the work is good since it reviews the phenomenon comprehensively and touches upon diverse spheres of life. At the same time, the reading deserves attention since it offers brief subchapters with their individual themes instead of axiomatic statements, which makes it a thought-provoking piece.
Works Cited
Ellis, Edward Robb. “What the Depression Did to People.” A Nation in Torment: The Great American Depression 1929-1939, Kodansha International, 1970, pp. 228-254.
Hardy, Lisa, et al. “Who Is to Blame for COVID-19? Examining Politicized Fear and Health Behavior through a Mixed Methods Study in the United States.” PloS One, vol. 16, no. 9, 2021, pp. 1-23, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0256136.
Selgin, George. “The Fiscal and Monetary Response to COVID-19: What the Great Depression Has – and Hasn’t – Taught Us.” Economic Affairs, vol. 41, no. 1, 2021, pp. 3-20. doi:10.1111/ecaf.12443.