BULLFROGS, BINGO, AND THE LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE

Voiovich offers a sweeping reexamination of the Great Depression that sees it as a time of moral resilience, resourcefulness, and creative invention.

In this stimulating work of historical revisionism, the author challenges conventional interpretations of the struggles of the 1930s. Although it was an age of political upheaval and fierce economic crisis, he admits, it was not a “religious calamity” characterized by pervasive despair—a characterization, he says, that simply neglects the “authentic experiences of everyday Americans.” In fact, he asserts, the economic downturn was a “catalystfor innovation” in at least three categories: the invention of widely successful products, the creation of entertainment that offered necessary distraction during difficult times, and the exaltation of heroes who were admired nationwide. In the main, the book showcases “the ingenuity of the average person who made the best of the worst of times.” Voiovich presents illuminating vignettes about the invention of Scotch tape and the proliferation of refrigerators, which were initially expensive but essential for avoiding food waste. Also, he explains how the iconic board game Monopoly, another product of the Depression, allowed average Americans to “see what it felt like to be a ruthless tycoon, if only for a few hours.” Prohibition agent Eliot Ness and DC Comics’ Superman captured the epoch’s collective admiration for devotion to the common good, he notes: “we see a new type of hero emerging in the Great Depression—a person who puts the needs of others and their community ahead of their own. People didn’t want a martyr. They wanted someone to look up to.” Throughout, the author persuasively contends that there’s a contemporary cost to false impressions of the era: an inability to fully understand one’s own economic travails, especially during the most recent recession. Overall, this is an impressively wide-ranging treatment of the age, full of liveliness and insight and conveyed in marvelously accessible prose.

An enlightening interpretation of a crucial period in American history.