Everything Was Better in America: Print Culture in the Great Depression

Reference Type Book
Year of Publication
2008
Author
Author: David Welky
Language
English
Number of Pages
266 pp.
Publisher
University of Illinois Press
City
Urbana, IL
Region
United States
Demographics
Women
Chronological Period
1900-1949
ISBN
9780252032998
Annotation

Examines how popular newspapers, magazines and books affirmed middle-class values and assured readers they would withstand hard times. 

Contents: 

  • Introduction: "A time not to rock the boat"

pt. 1. 

  • Newspapers
  • The Press encounters the New Deal
  • Kidnapping America's child
  • Olympic feats of Americanism
  • The Gumps: America's comic-strip family 

pt. 2. 

  • Magazines
  • How to slant a magazine
  • Life, the war, and everything
  • Defining womanhood in the Ladies' Home Journal
  • Patriot number one, the man of steel 

pt. 3. 

  • Books
  • Mainstreaming the book industry
  • Finding security in best sellers
  • Ellery Queen restores order 

  • Gone with the wind, but not forgotten 

     

  • Conclusion: "Everything was better in America."
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