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Robert Mcielvaine The Great Depression

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The Great Depression by Robert S. McElvaine is pretty straightforward. In the beginning, the book compares the economic crisis of 2008 with the roots of the Great Depression in 1929. He believed that politicians in the twentieth century did not learn their lesson from before. The book also depicts the lives of people during The Roaring Twenties and how the downfall of the economy and overproduction lead to mass unemployment and struggling families. McElvaine’s point of view on the Great Depression was considerably biased. As he points out, “the changing mix of American values in the Depression - was of even more significance than was Roosevelt himself.” What McElvain is trying to express in this quote is that Americans were so unhappy and felt …show more content…

At times he may skip around a bit, but he primarily stays on topic. McElvaine begins presenting about the 1920’s. The twenties were a decade where people were majority of the families were living comfortably and many were striking it rich. Later, he then focuses on government relief programs. Though he was not alive during this period, he has studied for more than thirty years on this topic.
Although McElvaine did not focus so much on the economic side of the depression, he did focus a lot of information on the relief programs. This is part of the reason why I enjoyed reading the book. McElvaine demonstrates that when the American people were faced with a crisis, they were forced to come up with creative solutions. Americans have always had a history of coming together to help each other, and this was evidenced by the programs that were put into place during this time period.
One of the quotes from the book that will always be in my mind is “the most significant fact about the Depression era may well be that it was the only time in the twentieth century during which there was a major break in the modern trends towards social disintegration and egoism.” This era made a lot of people including the rich and middle class realize just was being poor felt like. This quote shows that the Great Depression did not discriminate against a specific

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