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American Experience: The 1930s
PBS makes a great lesson of the Great Depression in 'American Experience'
series
Monday, October 26th 2009, 4:00 AM
Civilian Conservation Corps workers helped
America's recovery in the '30s
America's recovery in the '30s
AMERICAN EXPERIENCE: THE 1930s
Monday night at 9:30,
PBS
As the Great Depression of the 1930s becomes less vivid in the memories of
living Americans, it also becomes more clear how profoundly it shaped the
America that followed. This rich, five-part series neatly summarizes critical
components of those years.
Produced by WGBH in Boston, the series starts Monday night where the
Depression began, with the stock market crash of 1929.
This subject has fresher urgency than it might have had a decade ago. During
the last 10 years, we've seen two major stock market drops that, in their most
ominous moments, raised concern we might be staring at Great Depression II.
So far we've dodged that bullet, but Monday night's episode notes enough
parallels so that no one who watches is apt to feel complacent.
Part of the show focuses on National City Bank President Charles Mitchell and
stock traders Michael Meehan and Jesse Livermore, who manipulated the market in
ways that seemed to promise boundless wealth for everyone.
So, even though the first slice of that wealth went to those men themselves,
they were widely admired for helping lead America into a new era of prosperity.
Then the market crashed and by March 1933, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was
sworn into the presidency, at least 25% of the country didn't even have a job.
Roosevelt made the fastest move he could, which was to turn the federal
government into an employer. One of his first and biggest projects, the Civilian
Conservation Corps, is the subject of next Monday's program.
The CCC was among the least controversial of Roosevelt's alphabet plans, and
by the summer of 1933, it had a quarter-million people in the field. They
created access to national parks, they restored pastures that had been depleted
by decades of cotton farming, they replanted forests clear-cut by timber
companies, they restored water flow and quality.
The heart of the episode is four men who worked in the CCC, all of whom call
it a lifesaver for the workers as well as an incalculable benefit to the
American land.
The last three episodes cover the construction of the stunning Hoover Dam,
the Dust Bowl disaster and Seabiscuit, the underdog horse.
Five parts only scratches at the impact of the Great Depression on America.
But they scratch really well.
dhinckley@nydailynews.com