The invisible scar

by Caroline Bird

Hapless Herbert Hoover chose the term "depression" because he felt it did not have the fright potential of such established terms for financial disaster as "panic" or "crisis." This, and 1001 other facts have been rescued from the near oblivion that blankets the '30's in popular histories (or in tribal memory), and the buried gold of essential facts are burnished with personal anecdote and vivid passages from the contemporary record -- speeches and newspaper features. The title is the thesis, and this book contends that this willfully forgotten period has affected national attitudes and individual behavior with changes in politics, social welfare, employment, selling, marriage, women, and styles of dress, decor and decorum--along with failures to change. If your invisible scar twinges on hearing the refrain from "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" you should take the time for this -- it tells you why.