Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America
Drawing on new discoveries from personal collections, archives, and recent biographies, a new picture has emerged in the last decade of how the participants' individual dramas intersected with the larger picture of their subjects. This book illuminates what it felt like to live that experience, how going from joblessness to reporting on their own communities affected artists with varied visions, as well as what feelings such a passage involved: shame humiliation, anger, excitement, nostalgia, and adventure. Also revealed is how the WPA writers anticipated, and perhaps paved the way for, the political movements of the following decades, including the Civil Rights movement, the Women's Right movement, and the Native American rights movement.
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Book details
- Author
- David A. Taylor
- Imprint
- Trade Paper Press, an imprint of Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Formats
- Paperback, Hardcover
- Subjects
- History › United States
- Topics
- The Great Depression · 1930s America · American literature · oral history · writers and writing life · New Deal
- ISBN-13
- 9781684425204 (Paperback)9780470403808 (Hardcover)
About the author
DAVID A. TAYLOR is an American author, journalist, and filmmaker whose work focuses on history and science. His recent books include Cork Wars: Intrigue and Industry in World War II, Soul of a People: The WPA Writers' Project Uncovers Depression America and Ginseng, the Divine Root.
Taylor’s books and short fiction have earned recognition including a Library of Virginia Literary Award nomination, an Independent Publisher Book Award for History, and a Pushcart Prize nomination. He also wrote and co-produced a Smithsonian Channel documentary nominated for a 2010 Writers Guild of America Award.
When he’s not writing, Taylor teaches science writing at Johns Hopkins University. His work consistently explores the intersections of history and science.
David lives in Washington, D.C.