To some, the parallels between the situation that faced America in the beginning of the 1930s and that in the end of the first decade of the new millennium are frighteningly similar. Upon closer look, they may be even more so. The cyclical nature of events is often based in patterns of human behavior and the new American Experience series on PBS could not be timelier in presenting stories from one of America’s most trying periods, The 1930s. Indeed, in the opening teaser of The 1930s is a clip of President Obama, sounding very much like President Franklin D. Roosevelt in one of his early speeches urging the country to unite against adversity.
Robert Stone, who directs the second episode of the series “The Civilian Conservation Corps,” is one who sees the similarities between the two periods of history.
“We’re in the midst of the worst economic crisis the country has been in since the Great Depression. It looks like we dodged the bullet and avoided falling into another great depression largely because policy makers in Washington knew the history of what had gone right, what worked in getting us out of that previous crisis in the thirties and the kind of misjudgment that led us into it and made things worse. It was learning from history that enabled us to avoid the worst of what many people predicted might have happened. I think the series will help the general public understand what that history is and how important it is to the present day.”
The five programs, to premiere on five successive Monday nights are: “The Crash of 1929,” “The Civilian Conservation Corps,” “Hoover Dam,” “Surviving the Dust Bowl,” and “Seabiscuit.” The first episode celebrates the opulent, progressive and carefree 1920s and how the economic boom of the postwar nation fostered speculation and investment across a wide spectrum of Americans. The lives and Gatsby-like palaces of the fast rising stock brokers are seen and their lives described by descendants. It becomes easy to spot the causes of “Black Monday” and the ensuing economic strife. While there was plenty of blame to go around, most of it fell on the shoulders of previously popular President Herbert Hoover.
“There was serious talk of revolution in this country,” says Stone. “People were really questioning the capitalist system itself. They were questioning democracy. The word dictator was bandied about as a positive thing by many people. Many people thought Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin were doing a good job. So people were really questioning the entire foundation of our country. I think Roosevelt’s programs and Roosevelt’s political abilities largely deserve the credit for preserving what we know as America.”
Two of the programs focus on the massive economic stimulus programs of the Roosevelt administration. In public relations jargon of the time “economic stimulus” was the New Deal. These episodes, on the CCC and Hoover Dam, will be explored more closely in part two of this article. And the problems of the day were not just economic, as director Stone points out.
“I think one of the things that’s largely forgotten about the 1930s is that what this country was facing economically was in no small measure caused by a terrible environmental crisis that had befallen the entire country, not just the Dust Bowl which is what most people are familiar with. I think most people also think of the Dust Bowl as a natural phenomenon that sort of happened to take place in the 1930s and they don’t really relate the two things, the financial crisis and the environmental crisis. In fact the two are totally intertwined.”
Sound familiar? An environmental crisis spurned by unchecked growth and progress? Those parallels are more eerie all the time. The hardships caused by environmental strife, including the Dust Bowl, are revealed through film footage and interviews with survivors. Finally, the touching tale of the famous racehorse Seabuscuit details how a rag-to-riches sports story captured the interest of a population who needed just that kind of hero.
The series does not cover all the important story lines of the 1930s. The crime wave started by desperate and colorful criminals, the decaying international situation and the emergence of radio, music and movie stars at the top of their game would be other inviting topics for exploration. But the effort by American Experience to rope viewers into a period with so much turmoil and need for hope has arrived at the perfect time to remind everyone for the need to stay on the correct course for future success.
Related Articles |
