Splintered Memories of the Great Depression and the New Deal

Realms of Memory

The Great Depression was one of the most seismic events in modern American history. Equally important was Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal response to the crisis which dramatically transformed the role played by the government in the United States and the lives of its citizens. Why then is there no shared, collective memory of the New Deal and the Great Depression? Why did it take decades before Franklin Roosevelt was memorialized on the national stage in Washington DC? In his book project, Hard Times USA: The Great Depression and New Deal in American Memory, University of Mississippi historian Darren E. Grem explores the remembering and forgetting of this traumatic chapter and why it matters in the present. Tune in on November 5th for my conversation with Darren E. Grem.