Exams

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Graduate
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Graduate
Student
Papers

Worster, Donald.  Dust Bowl: The Southern Plains in the 1930s.  New York: Oxford University Press, 1979.

Evocative study of the relationship between capitalist farming and environmental crisis.

Robbins, William G. Hard Times in Paradise: Coos Bay, Oregon, 1850-1986. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1988.

The story of Coos Bay and its attempts to find economic alternatives in the face of a sporadic timber market, with a section on the Depression years.

Tygiel, Jules. The Great Los Angeles Swindle: Oil, Stocks and Scandal During the Roaring Twenties. New York: Oxford University Press, 1994.

A revealing account of the corruption-laced, boom and bust economy of the 1920s West

Mullins, William H.  The Depression and the Urban West Coast, 1929-1933: Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland.  Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1991.

Study of the plight of  West Coast cities during the Hoover adminstration.

Balderrama, Francisco E. and Raymond Rodriguez. Decade of Betrayal: Mexican Repatriation in the 1930s. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995.

The story of the 1930s anti-Mexican fervor in the United States and its consequences.

Gregory, James Noble. American Exodus: The Dust Bowl Migration and Okie Culture in California. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.

A study of the mass migrations of the 1920s and 1930s and the way they changed California.

Putnam, Jackson K. Old-Age Politics in California: From Richardson to Reagan. Palo Alto: Stanford University Press, 1970.

Traces the development of the old-age political movement in California, with chapters on the Townsend Plan and EPIC.

Mitchell Greg.  The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics.  New York: Random House, 1992.

Detailed account of the Sinclair candidacy and the EPIC campaign

Steinbeck, John. The Grapes of Wrath. New York: The Viking Press, 1939.

The classic fictional account of an Oklahoma family’s move to California following the Dust Bowl and the demise of the tenant farming system.

Nash, George H. The Life of Herbert Hoover. New York: W.W. Norton, 1983.

A biography of Herbert Hoover in three volumes

Film, Video and Audio.

The Grapes of Wrath. Directed by John Ford. 129 m. 1940. Videorecording.

Award winning film starring Henry Fonda, adapted from the Steinbeck novel. VIDEOTAPE VT4109

Undermining the Great Depression: Backyard Gold in Jacksonville, Oregon. 25m. 1980. Film.

Five Jacksonville, Or., "oldtimers" offer an oral history of their small town's unique life-style during the Depression, when jobless townspeople mined for gold in their backyards and beneath houses and streets. FILM Mc313

The Plow that Broke the Plains. Directed and Written by Pare Lorentz. 21m. 1936. Film.

Presents the social and economic history of the Great Plains from the time of the settlement of the prairies by cattlemen and farmers through the World War I boom to the years of depression and drought. Produced by the US Farm Security Administration.FILM Mc131

38 Favorite American Folk Songs. By Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly and Pete Seeger. 196?. Phonodisks...

A three album set of folk songs, with liner notes, many of which were inspired by the experiences of the Depression.PHONODISC DMdl A637

Brother, can you spare a dime? American Song during the Great Depression. 1931-1941. Phonodisk.

Popular songs from the Depression era. PHONODISC DMdl 1726

Web Sites

America from the Great Depression to World War II

Over 45,00 photographs from the Library of Congress, taken by the Federal Security Administration—Office of War Information Collection, depicting, America during the Depression and World War II. Searchable. http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsahtml/fahome.html

Put Yourself There: 
      Debates, Documents, and First Person Accounts

Sinclair, Upton. I, Governor of California: And How I Ended Poverty. Los Angeles: Upton Sinclair, 1933.

A pamphlet put out by Sinclair before the 1934 California governor’s race outlining his platform.

Sinclair, Upton. I, Candidate for Governor: And How I Got Licked. Pasadena: Upton Sinclair, 1934.

Sinclair’s account of the 1934 election.

Terkel, Studs. Hard times: An Oral History of the Great Depression. New York: Avon, 1971.

A collection of stories and interviews from people who lived through the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Fire Among the Ashes. 57m. 197? Cassette.

Survivors of the Great Depression recount their personal experiences.