Frederick Allen

The Nineteen-Thirties in America; September 3, 1929-September 3, 1939

Since Yesterday

Frederick L. Allen

"Vividly and with great skills he marshals the men, the mountebanks, the measures, and the events of ten years of American life and causes them to march before us in orderly panathenaic procession."--Saturday Review

The 1930's in America, September 3, 1929 to September 3, 1939

Bryan Alexander

I remember reading Frederick Allen's Only Yesterday, an account of America in the 1920s, for a high school history class. It was tough going then, as I hadn't ever experienced his kind of social history before. I needed a narrative, and he didn't provide one, or at least not the kind I was used to. 

I read into it years later and found it a delight. Allen's ability to sweep over a wide range of fields reminded me of anthropology, and his sense of humor charmed me.

So I picked up Since Yesterday (1940), his history of the 1930s, with an expectation of more of the same. I turned to this because of the recession-nigh-unto-depression unfolding now, so I could learn from the past. And my expectations were met.

Since Yesterday starts with the stock market crash of 1929 and takes us through 1939, ending with the Nazi/Soviet invasion of Poland. Allen follows a chronological path, taking us through familiar events: Hoover's increasingly desperate attempts to cope, FDR's first election, the New Deal, FDR mediating between insurgents on the left and right, the slow recovery, the 1937-1938 crash, and the run-up to WWII.

Most of this was familiar to me, but not all, and sometimes in contexts I hadn't thought of. Allen reminds us of how Prohibition ends with FDR's ascent, that the Depression basically ended America's experiment with restricting alcohol. He shows us how important labor was, and how strikes and organization were still very active.

What does this tell us about 2020, assuming we understand that history never repeats perfectly? Allen reminds us that family and social roles changed up, with some people performing different tasks at home and work. Some left cities to try country life. Many suffered stark psychological shocks, especially those seeing their careers put on hold or ended. 

The book's sketch of popular culture is fascinating. We see some media providing thoughtful explorations of current affairs, while others (notably film) offer instead distractions. The latter seems to outweigh the former. We should probably expect a repeat of this, albeit expressed through different media, notably computer gaming and streaming video. Allen also points out that sports became more popular, more "democratized" (2241); I'm not sure what the equivalent would be for our time.

Allen notes (Kindle location 1183) "a new crusading spirit among the citizenry," aimed at political corruption. I can see this in the US and elsewhere now, as anxiety about COVID-19 translates into fury at authorities who mishandled it - and, of course, the customary graft and incompetence of the Trump administration, plus residual dislike of those named in the Panama Papers. It might connect with other political currents, such as climate change activism, identity politics, and the resurgent (if still marginalized) left.

The book makes an intriguing argument for an odd shift in sexual mores. On the one hand, people seem to stop getting excited about sexual issues that were revolutionary in the 1920s, and just move on with some resignation or acceptance. On the other, there are flashes of classic American puritanism. I do wonder how this plays out in 2020, given our greatly different society (i.e., several generations of women's and gay liberation, oceans of pornography, social sifting into like-minded communities, etc.). Will we stop arguing as much about the impacts of online porn, say, or accept more censoring of access to it? Will BDSM keep becoming mainstreamed, or will we marginalize it once more? 

On a related note, Allen shows that some intergenerational conflicts from the 1920s died down in the 30s (2250). Should we expect "OK Boomer" to fade and to see both young and middle aged people be less opposed to their elders, especially as the latter are the primary victims of COVID-19? On the other hand, the book also observes how many young people viewed the world as having broken promises of good lives and careers (2549); how will this play out, by revolt or hunkering down? We could see a repeat of the 1930s' "essential friendliness [and] human decency" (2922) instead - which might shock a lot of folks.

On another related them, Since Yesterday thinks that religious belief and practice did not take off during the Depression, that secularization continued (2568). I wonder how our period reacts. Will new religious movements and pseudoscience (think Goop, or Alex Jones) grow into a new New Age or Great Awakening, or will the US follow the rest of the world into decreasing religious affiliation? There are already signs of this occurring among younger Americans.

Written in 1940, the book is in some ways better as an artifact of its time than as an objective history. It can't show how WWII gave the US economy an enormous and decisive boost, ultimately transforming American society into one deeply bound up with a large and permanent military machine, for example. Since Yesterday ends on a querulous note on FDR's Keynesian economics, an interesting pause, as we known that that kind of national economic strategy would dominate much of the world for the next two generations.

I enjoyed Allen's style, presentation, and attitude. He has a keen eye for small details of Americana. I didn't know that "boondoggle" took off as a term in the 1930s, for example (2889). This is the period of spectacular crimes, like the killing of Dillinger and the twisty story of the Lindbergh baby. It's the time of a ferment in political improvisation and ideas, like the Townsend plan, technocracy, and EPIC. It saw the birth of trailers and mobile homes.

Recommended.

Since Yesterday The Nineteen-Thirties in America; September 3, 1929-September 3, 1939

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