I’ve always wondered why there’s been no serious academic investigation of this. I think about the Grapes of Wrath, one of the most famous works of Americana, which vividly describes the hunger and the violence of the Dust Bowl and yet I’m supposed to believe nobody starved to death? No malnourished children died? People didn’t get in fights and die over resources? Apparently the Great Depression sucked but besides the banker that jumped off the fifth floor nobody died.
Even aside from academia, there isn’t much serious art about it either. Depression hobos are just taken as this whimsical character Ala O Brother Where Art Thou etc. Even media at the time leaned that way.
I’ve always wondered why there’s been no serious academic investigation of this. I think about the Grapes of Wrath, one of the most famous works of Americana, which vividly describes the hunger and the violence of the Dust Bowl and yet I’m supposed to believe nobody starved to death? No malnourished children died? People didn’t get in fights and die over resources? Apparently the Great Depression sucked but besides the banker that jumped off the fifth floor nobody died.
Even aside from academia, there isn’t much serious art about it either. Depression hobos are just taken as this whimsical character Ala O Brother Where Art Thou etc. Even media at the time leaned that way.