Woody Guthrie's nearly-lost song collection from 1940. The pithy half-page comments on the songs are among Guthrie's best writings. The selection of songs is outstanding. This book should never go out of print.

The original, essential history of the 1930s, written when the experience was still fresh in the writer's mind.

Hally Wood and the Ramblers made clear, compact, essentially correct transcriptions of a great batch of old-time songs. I've owned a copy since it first came out, and I've always kept it on one of the handiest bookshelves in my music-making area. Includes several songs which will be a part of the Voss & Osborne concert-lecture, "All In, Down and Out: Songs and Stories of the Great Depression."

Terrific selection of original source materials. As in our concert-lecture, the artifacts are presented with a bare minimum of commentary, giving readers the opportunity to make their own analyses.

Includes some rare songs not found elsewhere, most notably Eddie Cantor's "Cheer Up! Smile! Nertz!", which was issued only on a flexible 78 inside the humor magazine Ballyhoo.

Fairly good cross-section of Depression-era songs from the Columbia catalog.

Cantor's comic presidential campaign of 1932. Not as sharp and bitter as "Caught Short!" More like today's late-night comedians, poking fun at any and all politicians and political parties.

The classic collection of Woody's songs about the Okie experience. Seminal, indispensible American folk-style social-historical commentary in song.

Columns written for the San Francisco communist newspaper "People's World" in 1939. Woody had remarkable ease with putting his uncensored thoughts onto paper. The results are mixed. Sometimes pithy, sometimes trivial, sometimes just regurgitating the party line.

The video and the companion book tell about the quarter of a million adolescents who were hoboing during the Depression. Nine of them, in their 70s, are interviewed at length, giving an interesting variety of experiences and reasons for taking to the road. Song selection for the film soundtrack is superb.

High-quality product of Time-Life Books. Quality reproductions of many good photographs and other graphic materials. Highly condensed text gives good introduction to the subject.

Brand-new - received an excellent review in The New Yorker. It sounds as if Dickstein identifies many of the same trends and impulses that are emphasized in our concert-lecture. Dickstein deals mainly with fine arts and mass-market entertainment, whereas our program includes a large component of folk and working-class expression.

Dense, scholarly study of Depression-era documents of working-class women.

Hickok's reports to the director of the Federal Emergency Relief Agency are largely dry, statistical, and analytical. There are occasional close-up and personal stories. I got from this book a much clearer and richer understanding of the way New Deal bureaucrats were thinking, how they were perceiving the challenges they faced.

Includes a very touching 2-page anecdote concerning the generosity of the dining room manager at Albquerque's Alvorado Hotel during the Depression.

Built around Farm Security Administration photographs from New Mexico. Fascinating material, mostly about traditional, rural lifestyles.