National Trauma and Collective Memory

Extraordinary Events in the American Experience

Arthur G. Neal

• Editorial: Routledge
• Año: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781317464051
• Edición: 2
• Categoría: Historia
• Categoría: Historia del mundo

A fascinating exploration of our evolving national psyche, this book chronicles major traumas in recent American history - from the Depression and Pearl Harbor, to the assassinations of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, Jr., to Ruby Ridge, Waco, and Columbine - how we responded to them as a nation, and what our responses mean. Reflecting on American popular culture as well as the media, this edition includes a new chapter on 9/11 and other acts of terror within the United States, as well as coverage of the Columbia space shuttle disaster. New student-friendly features, including discussion questions and "Symbolic Events" boxes in each chapter, give the book added value as a classroom supplement.

II
Case Studies of National Trauma

3 • The Great Depression

The Great Depression of the 1930s was the most severe trauma the nation had experienced since the Civil War. The severity of the collapse of the economic system caught most Americans by surprise. The stock market crashed, banks failed, industrial production was severely curtailed, and unemployment rates escalated. Personal fortunes were lost and millions of Americans faced near starvation. The economic system had failed to work, and levels of helplessness and hopelessness reached unprecedented levels within the general population.

The economic trauma grew not out of a single episode, but out of a series of shock waves that had cumulative effects on the social system. The Great Depression had its beginning with the stock market crash of 1929 and ended with mobilization of the nation for waging World War II. During the interval between these two events, American capitalism was in a state of crisis. The economic euphoria of the 1920s came to be replaced with unprecedented economic hardship. While all major segments of society were affected, the severity of the economic decline was experienced unevenly among subgroups of the population.

The shock effects of the economic collapse devastated the millions of Americans who had experienced a rough time even before the Depression. Damaged lives were becoming increasingly evident. But even the more privileged members of the American middle class were frequently faced with cuts in pay and required to manage with diminished resources. Before the Great Depression ran its course, all major sectors of society confronted adversity and the system became permanently changed.

The business cycle was very much a part of the American experience. Many economic expansions and times of prosperity had been followed by economic contractions. President Herbert Hoover optimistically designated the economic downturn as a "depression." In his view, the term "panic," which had been used previously to describe deteriorating economic conditions, was unwarranted in the early 1930s. He persisted in the view that the economic downturn was a normal, natural process. The base building that occurs during a recession was seen as providing the foundation for even greater prosperity in the future. As the depth and severity of the Depression became clear, however, few could remember economic conditions that were worse, and there was little evidence for the view that the future would be better any time soon.

The initial jolt to the economic system came with the stock market crash on October 24, 1929. Prices dropped sharply, and thousands of individual investors found their personal finances in shambles. The initial trauma of the Great Depression fell disproportionately on the privileged members of society who had overextended themselves in the financial markets. The reversal of fortunes among investors symbolically represented the beginning of the hard times that were to follow.

The crash of the stock market in 1929 was not followed by a turnaround in prices, as some of the leading experts on the stock market had predicted. Instead, stock prices continued their precipitous decline. The losses that were initially defined as "paper losses" subsequently translated into "real losses" from the panicked selling that followed. The failure of the stock market to recover from its catastrophic collapse contributed to a sharp reversal in public attitudes. Greed and economic euphoria were transformed into fear. Brokerage houses were swamped with sell orders as investors attempted to cut their losses. Before the bear market of the early 1930s ran its course, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped to a low of 41, down from a high of 381 on September 3, 1929. The 90 percent decline in stock prices translated into severe economic losses for investors. About $30 billion in assets had vanished, a sum approximating the total cost of World War I to the United States.

The second wave of the economic collapse occurred in the banking industry. Banks failed at an alarming rate during the early 1930s. The banks got into a lot of trouble because they had failed to maintain adequate cash reserves, made risky investments, and loaned money to people who could not repay. The use of banks for depositing personal savings and weekly paychecks had been based on the assumption that funds would be available when there was a need for them. Individual depositors responded with shock and alarm as banks failed and checking and savings accounts vanished. The scope of the bank failures generated an atmosphere of panic. There was a run on banks as depositors scurried to get their money back. The available resources in the banks were quickly exhausted, and the banks became insolvent. Banks became the object of a great deal of anger as a result of the foreclosures on mortgages, the loss of depositors' savings, and the worsening of economic conditions.

By 1933, industrial production fell to about one-third of its 1929 total, and the U.S. gross national product was trimmed to half of what it had been four years earlier. A dark cloud descended over a nation that had control over vast natural resources, with an agricultural system unsurpassed in its capacity for food production and an industrial base for producing vast quantities of consumer goods and services. The business sector cannot sustain a high level of production for very long under conditions of falling prices, falling demand, and escalating corporate losses. American consumers no longer had prosperity-level resources for purchasing the products of industry. Production was curtailed, plants were closed, and thousands of employees received layoff notices.

Reasonable estimates place the overall unemployment rate for the nation at about one-fourth of the civilian labor force by 1933, Out of a civilian labor force of 51 million, about 13 million workers found themselves unemployed. Thirty-seven percent of nonfarm workers were unemployed. In several metropolitan areas, the unemployment rates were more than 50 percent. Employment opportunities were vanishing, and for millions of those who were employed, the rate of pay was severely cut. The income levels for about three-fourths of those who were employed fell below the minimum necessary for maintaining a decent standard of living. The families of several million workers had no income of any kind.

The American dream had turned into a nightmare. Life plans were shattered, families were disrupted, and several million Americans became homeless. The collapse of the economic system caused widespread suffering and unhappiness in the personal lives of individuals throughout the country. Men and women who had thought of themselves as self-sufficient found themselves standing in bread lines and making use of soup kitchens to alleviate their hunger. Many of those who took advantage of the limited relief available did so with a personal sense of embarrassment and shame.

One of the many dramatic episodes of the Great Depression was the veterans' march on Washington, DC, in the late spring of 1932. More than 20,000 veterans came to demand payment of the bonus that had been promised to them for military service in World War I. The cash bonus for the veterans had not been authorized for payment until 1945. The poverty-stricken veterans hoped to get about $500 each, which would provide temporary relief from their personal suffering and the suffering of their families. The veterans camped out with their wives and children in city parks, dumps, empty stores, and warehouses. A sense of desperation was written across the faces of those who participated in daily marches around the White House. While the veterans marched to call attention to their plight, they were met with a governmental response that seemed to be cold and indifferent. President Hoover was embarrassed by what he saw happening in the nation's capital and maintained that the demonstrators were "communists" or "criminals," rather than veterans.

Out of a sense of despair, the veterans persisted in their demands and refused to obey orders to move out of Washington. A military unit under the command of General Douglas MacArthur was dispatched to disperse the demonstrators. Veterans who had served their country in the trenches of World War I were now faced with tanks, gas grenades, machine guns, and rifles with fixed bayonets. More than a hundred demonstrators were injured in the forceful dispersal. The coercive powers of the state had been employed to suppress public expression of discontent. The veterans were bitter as they left Washington. All evidence pointed to the conclusion that the nation was ungrateful for the personal sacrifices they had made. The nation had failed to respond to their needs in a time of trouble.

Even the forces of nature seemed to be conspiring against human hopes for a secure world and a better life. Contributing to the depth of the Depression, a prolonged drought resulted in the most devastating agricultural disaster in American history. The drought, which was frequently accompanied by unprecedented heat waves, lasted throughout the 1930s. Overplowing and overgrazing of the Great Plains were man's contributions to what became known as "the dust bowl." The affected area extended from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains and from North Dakota to Texas. The topsoil became airborne when the high winds came. Clouds of dust covered the landscape, entered houses around windows and doors, and made breathing difficult. The shifting sands altered the landscape and made a vast land area uninhabitable.

Farm populations dependent on the annual crop yield encountered food shortages and, in many cases, near starvation. Even under the best of circumstances, making a living by farming in desertlike conditions is difficult. Thousands of families were forced off the land when crops were destroyed by dust storms, loans could not be repaid, and banks foreclosed on farm mortgages. Farm laborers lost their jobs as a consequence of the government policy of removing land from production in order to prop up farm prices.

A mixture of hope and despair was associated with the mass migration of hundreds of thousands to other parts of the country. The pathos of the mass migration was captured in John Steinbeck's novel The Grapes of Wrath. The quest for new beginnings and a more favorable life stood in sharp contrast to the reality shock of transient camps and temporary work at very low wages. Feelings of bitterness and disillusionment grew out of the recognition that hard times had affected all areas of the country.

An increasing proportion of Americans saw themselves as living in an environment that was unresponsive to their personal needs and interests. Those in positions of political authority were seen as failing to provide adequate leadership and as being indifferent to the suffering that was occurring throughout the country. Under existing conditions, society could fulfill neither the economic nor the spiritual needs of the general population. Many intellectuals embraced communism as the only viable system for alleviating the deep troubles the country was facing. People came to believe that capitalism was in a state of crisis. Those pressing for remedial action encountered resistance from those who wished to maintain the status quo. The impact of the Great Depression on American society was of volcanic proportions.

The Crisis of Capitalism

A crisis of capitalism grew out of the failure of the economy to provide for either the needs of individuals or the needs of the social system. All the markets of the American economy were out of alignment and in serious trouble. The financial markets were in a state of turmoil, the labor markets failed to provide employment, and the commodity markets were faced with surpluses that could not be sold. The contradictions of capitalism were evident in the agricultural sector. Farmers were producing food that could not be sold, while millions of Americans suffered from hunger. Impersonal forces were operating that were understood neither by business leaders nor government officials.

In contrast to the public view that President Hoover was indifferent to economic hardships, he had taken an active role in appealing to business corporations to take voluntary measures for alleviating the crisis. For example, he called for a voluntary freeze on wage reductions. He argued that business corporations would benefit in the long run if they undertook voluntary measures to stem the tide of economic deterioration.

The Ford Motor Company responded to the president's appeal by announcing that wage levels would not be reduced, but instead would be increased to $7 a day for production workers. The role of the Ford Motor Company in stemming the tide of economic deterioration, however, was short-lived. The annual sales of automobiles dropped from more than 5 million in 1929 to slightly more than 1 million in 1932. Economic hardships had caused consumers to make drastic cuts in their discretionary spending. Ford followed the general trend in industry by seriously curtailing production and laying off thousands of workers to reduce payroll costs. In Detroit, Toledo, Cleveland, and other industrial cities of the Midwest, more than half of the labor force joined the ranks of the unemployed.

President Hoover attempted to reassure the nation that all was well. He asserted that in the long run the nation would benefit from the present difficulties. Adversity, in his view, would contribute to strong moral character. Individuals should show more initiative and try harder to solve their own problems. In his view, governmental initiatives in the area of welfare would only lead to chronic dependency. The government, particularly the federal government, should minimize its role in the lives of private citizens. His political agenda included an emphasis on protective tariffs (which intensified the economic crisis worldwide), an emphasis on tight money policy when there was a need for easier access to credit, and an emphasis on governmental economies when there was a need for economic stimulus. Many Americans saw Hoover's political measures as the source of the problem rather than the solution.

Hoover maintained that unemployment relief should be the primary responsibility of charitable organizations and local governments, not the federal government. He strongly held the conviction that voluntary cooperative action at the local level could not only relieve the distress but also reinforce national values by promoting an ethic of social responsibility. The ethic of social responsibility called for the more prosperous members of society to provide help for the less fortunate who were in need. Many local officials initially agreed with President Hoover. Serious efforts were directed toward implementing the tradition of private philanthropy to meet the needs of the suffering.

The cities of New Orleans, Minneapolis, and many others made a concerted effort to draw upon local resources for dealing with the emergency. All the efforts were destined to fail. The local resources that were mobilized turned out to be far too limited to deal with economic problems that were increasing in severity. The increasing number of unemployed men, homeless families, and hungry schoolchildren quickly exhausted all available local resources. Unemployment and homelessness were increasing at the same time that tax revenues were decreasing at both the local and the federal levels. Hoover's orthodox emphasis upon an annually balanced federal budget stood in contrast to the growing need for government assistance in the general population. Voluntary forms of relief could not keep pace with the accelerated economic deterioration. Families in serious trouble were required to do the best they could with the limited resources they had available.

The conclusion became inescapable that only the federal government had the resources necessary for dealing with the emergency. Voluntarism on the part of business corporations and charitable organizations had failed to deal adequately with the emergency. As a result, the crisis of capitalism became a crisis of authority in the political realm. Those holding positions of power and trusteeship had failed to act when action was necessary. It was not so much that the president and the Congress were indifferent to the problems that were developing; rather, the crisis stemmed from an intellectual failure to recognize that old ideologies and historical precedents were not adequate for dealing with the seriousness of the economic collapse. Viewing the emergency as only a temporary one that would eventually correct itself was not good enough. Such views subsequently came to be regarded as reflecting attitudes of benign neglect and cynical indifference.

In the final analysis, the crisis of capitalism produced a loss of confidence in the economic system. Business corporations responded by initiating retrenchment policies. Banks responded by foreclosing on mortgages when homeowners were unable to repay. With plant closings and layoffs, the unemployed were required to fend for themselves. There were no provisions for unemployment compensation or transitional measures for relocating workers. Those looking for work confronted a labor market in which no jobs were available. Individuals faced scarcities and shortages in their personal lives, while corporations and farmers were confronted with surplus production. In effect, neither corporate America nor the American government was able to deal effectively with the problems of economic failure.

The many oral histories of the Great Depression and the pathos in the letters written to Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt revealed symptoms of trauma resembling those of combat veterans. Sleep disturbances, eating disorders, feelings of detachment and estrangement from others, and a sense of emptiness were evident. The letters to the Roosevelts, disproportionately from women, appealed for help out of feelings of desperation. The letter writers revealed a sense of having no other place to turn and a conviction that the president and his wife were sympathetic to their suffering and would be willing to provide personal help.

Economic Hardship

Throughout most of the human past, deprivation and hardship were the normal state of affairs for most people. Industrialization and urbanization changed that. In the decade following World War I, the purchasing power of the American family was increasing, the overall standard of living was improving, and people were living longer. The types of goods and services now available to the masses had previously been limited to only the very rich. While not shared uniformly, the overall prosperity in the United States during the 1920s produced a state of euphoria. The production and distribution of automobiles, telephones, radios, refrigerators, and other consumer durable goods pointed toward a future that would be even better. Materialistic values were given free rein by mass advertisers who encouraged people to want more, to spend more, and to consume more. The system no longer was concerned with simply meeting the survival needs of the population; it now placed an emphasis on generating desires for commodities that did not exist previously.

The American values of individualism and consumerism were counterproductive during the economic setback of the 1930s. A large number of Americans had come to want and expect a type of lifestyle they could no longer have. The success theme in American culture had always emphasized the correspondence between merit and reward, between what people deserve and what they actually get. While pockets of poverty persisted throughout the 1920s, there was a general belief in the United States as a land of opportunity: Any man or woman with a lot of initiative and hard work would be able to make it within the system. Subscribing to these values contributed to the anguish of the millions who blamed themselves for their troubles, rather than seeing hardship as a result of a system failure.

The economic hardships of the Great Depres...