The Hungry Years A Narrative History of the Great Depression in America [Paperback]

It was the worst of times and the best of times. It was an era of unprecedented crisis and a time of unprecedented courage. In a single, comprehensive volume,The Hungry Yearstells the story of the Great Depression through the eyes of the people who lived it. Less concerned with the power brokers in Washington than with the daily struggles of ordinary people at the grassroots across America, it draws on little-known oral histories, memoirs, local press, and scholarly monographs to capture the voices of men and women in a time of extreme crisis. The result is a richly detailed narrative that traces the stages of the disaster chronologically without losing touch with the personal wounds it inflicted or the ways in which people responded.

Humane and compassionate, brilliantly researched, full of story and anecdote,The Hungry Yearsputs the reader at the very heart of the maelstrom that was the American depression.

The author of numerous books,T.H. Watkinswas perhaps best-known as the author ofRighteous Pilgrim, winner of theLos Angeles TimesBook Prize for Biography and a finalist for the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award. He died in 2000. At the time of his death he was Wallace Stegner Distinguished Professor of Western American Studies at Montana State University.

A terrific, moving book. The Hungry Years is narrative history at its best. Geoffrey C. Ward

A tour de force, an epic saga brimming with unforgettable anecdotes, glorious storytelling, and sound judgment. As a Great Depression historian, Watkins is in a class of his own. Douglas Brinkley, director, The Eisenhower Center

A big-hearted, abundant narrative...Watkins draws compelling portraits of people oscillating between despair and hope and a political culture in the midst of historic transformation. Henry Mayer, The Washington Post Book World