“During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the US economy almost completely collapsed,” historian Dana Frank writes in her new book, What Can We Learn from the Great Depression? “By 1933 a third of all those who’d had jobs were unemployed; another third were scraping by with lesser work. Racism, far from collapsing, festered and metastasized as insecurity rippled through the country, pushing people of color even further downward... As we face our own crises today—a precarious economy, outrageous inequality and poverty, growing racism, climate change—and lie awake at night, facing our own fears, these stories from the Great Depression offer us new and often surprising insights into our own time, our own choices.” In this live episode of Working People, recorded at Red Emma’s cooperative bookstore, cafe, and community events space in Baltimore, TRNN Editor-in-Chief Maximillian Alvarez speaks with Frank about her new book and what taking a fresh look at poor and working people’s struggles in the dark 1930s can teach us about how to navigate our own perilous moment in history.

Additional links/info below…

Dana Frank, Beacon Press, What Can We Learn from the Great Depression?: Stories of Ordinary People & Collective Action in Hard Times
Dana Frank website
Red Emma’s website, Facebook page, and Instagram
Dana Frank, The Los Angeles Times, “Trump Says He’ll Expel a Million Immigrants. Believe Him–It Happened Before”
Dana Frank, History News Network, “Ohio’s Little-Known Fascist Member of Congress”

Permanent links below…

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The Real News Network website, YouTube channel, podcast feeds, Facebook page, and Twitter page

Featured Music…

Jules Taylor, “Working People” Theme Song

Studio Production: Max Alvarez
Post-Production: Jules Taylor

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Is the Great Depression a glimpse of our future? w/Dana Frank | Working People