Rousing the nation
Subtitle: radical culture in Depression America
By: Laura Browder.
Publisher: University of Massachusetts Press
Published: 1998
Place of publication: Amherst
Language: eng
Number of pages: 217
Subjects: American literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism; Radicalism in literature; Literature and society -- United States -- History -- 20th century; Motion pictures -- United States -- History; Modernism (Literature) -- United States; Depressions -- 1929 -- United States; Social problems in literature; Depressions in literature; United States -- Intellectual life -- 20th century
Description: This interdisciplinary study blends textual analysis with social history to chart the intellectual and artistic ferment of Depression-era America. In Rousing the Nation, Laura Browder explores the fiction, drama, and film produced during the decade by socially conscious intellectuals who struggled to create a uniquely American art.

Browder first considers authors James T. Farrell, Josephine Herbst, and John Dos Passos, arguing that their work successfully sparked a discussion about what it meant to be American at a time when the country's very future seemed in doubt. She then examines the Living Newspaper productions of the Federal Theatre Project, which brought politically and aesthetically provocative drama to twenty-five million Americans.

In a final chapter, she examines social films of the period, focusing on Paramount's 1939 production of One-Third of a Nation.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [183]-205) and index.