Rousing the Nation: Radical Culture in Depression America

This interdiscplinary study blends textual analysis with social history to chart the intellectual and artistic ferment of Depression-era America. It explores the fiction, drama and film produced during the decade by socially conscious intellectuals who struggled to create a uniquely American art. Challenged by a public more exposed to comic strips and tabloids than to serious artistic creativity, these writers and cinematographers used the techniques of modernism and muckraking to fashion works that would be experimental without being insular and would inspire the public to social activism.