Between 1938 and 1942 the Federal Writers' project set out to create a first-person portrait of America by sending young writers - many of whom later became famous - around the country to interview people from all occupations and backgrounds. This book presents 80 of these diverse life histories, including the stories of a North Carolina patent-medicine pitchman, a retired Oregon prospector, a Bahamian midwife from Florida, recent immigrants to New York, a Key West smuggler, Chicago jazz musicians. Historian Eric Foner called "First Person America" the finest example yet of an increasingly important genre of oral history".
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Fresh in today's economic climate,
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This review is from: First Person America (Paperback)
This book was originally published in 1980, but two things make it very meaningful in 2009. First, there is an obvious similarity between the stories of these persons who lived through the Great Depression and families caught up in today's chaos. When allowances are made for differences in technology, many of these persons displaced in the '30's could be people in similar situations speaking today. The second thing that is thought provoking is the continuity between what happened 75 years ago and what is happening today.
The book is a very good read--excellent stories and quite well edited.
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Inside This Book
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs):
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tobacco people, beef kill, granite workers, granite cutters, granite industry, packinghouse workers Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, North Carolina, Key West, Sam Ross, Uncle Zeb, Old Times, South Carolina, Betty Burke, Leonard Rapport, Immigrant Lives, Monumental Stone, The Jazz Language, Victoria Kramer, United States, Ralph Ellison, Doc Porter, New Mexico, Hey Rube, Dry Casings, Industrial Lore, Number One, Oklahoma City, Jack Delano, Bix Beiderbecke, Muggsy Spanier Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
tobacco people, beef kill, granite workers, granite cutters, granite industry, packinghouse workers Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
New York, North Carolina, Key West, Sam Ross, Uncle Zeb, Old Times, South Carolina, Betty Burke, Leonard Rapport, Immigrant Lives, Monumental Stone, The Jazz Language, Victoria Kramer, United States, Ralph Ellison, Doc Porter, New Mexico, Hey Rube, Dry Casings, Industrial Lore, Number One, Oklahoma City, Jack Delano, Bix Beiderbecke, Muggsy Spanier Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
46
books
cite this book:
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- Daughters of the Great Depression: Women, Work, and Fiction in the American 1930s by Laura Hapke on 4 pages
- Texas Cowboys: Memories of the Early Days by James Lanning on 4 pages
- Creating a Hoosier Self-Portrait: The Federal Writers' Project in Indiana, 1935-1942 by George T. Blakey on page 22, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Calling Home: Working-Class Women's Writings by Janet Zandy on page 51, Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Smoldering City: Chicagoans and the Great Fire, 1871-1874 (Historical Studies of Urban America) by Karen Sawislak in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
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