{"title":"Robert S Mcelvaine","description":"\u003cp\u003eExplore the insightful works of Robert S. McElvaine, a historian renowned for his poignant analysis of American culture and the Great Depression. Delve into compelling narratives that bridge the past and present.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"great-depression-book-robert-s-mcelvaine-9780812923278","title":"The Great Depression","description":"One of the classic studies of the Great Depression, featuring a new introduction by the author with insights into the economic crises of 1929 and today. \u003cbr\u003e In the twenty-five years since its publication, critics and scholars have praised historian Robert McElvaine s sweeping and authoritative history of the Great Depression as one of the best and most readable studies of the era. Combining clear-eyed insight into the machinations of politicians and economists who struggled to revive the battered economy, personal stories from the average people who were hardest hit by an economic crisis beyond their control, and an evocative depiction of the popular culture of the decade, McElvaine paints an epic picture of an America brought to its knees but also brought together by people s widely shared plight. \u003cbr\u003e In a new introduction, McElvaine draws striking parallels between the roots of the Great Depression and the economic meltdown that followed in the wake of the credit crisis of 2008. He also examines the resurgence of anti-regulation free market ideology, beginning in the Reagan era, and argues that some economists and politicians revised history and ignored the lessons of the Depression era.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49523442417937,"sku":"GOR004292223","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49530662486289,"sku":"CIN0812923278G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":49933925941521,"sku":"CIN0812923278A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50336067158289,"sku":"GOR004613833","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50491009433873,"sku":"CIN0812923278VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51396758012177,"sku":"GOR011323344","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52327162511633,"sku":"NLS9780812923278","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":52738165211409,"sku":"NIN9780812923278","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53056345276689,"sku":"GOR009117580","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0812923278.jpg?v=1751362459"},{"product_id":"times-they-were-a-changin-book-robert-s-mcelvaine-9781950994106","title":"The Times They Were a-Changin'","description":"An award-winning historian on the transformative year in the sixties that continues to reverberate in our lives and politics—for readers of Heather Cox Richardson.  If 1968 marked a turning point in a pivotal decade, 1964—or rather, the long 1964, from JFK’s assassination in November 1963 to mid-1965—was the time when the sixties truly arrived. It was then that the United States began a radical shift toward a much more inclusive definition of “American,” with a greater degree of equality and a government actively involved in social and economic improvement.  It was a radical shift accompanied by a cultural revolution. The same month Bob Dylan released his iconic ballad “The Times They Are a-Changin’,” January 1964, President Lyndon Johnson announced his War on Poverty. Spurred by the civil rights movement and a generation pushing for change, the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the Immigration and Nationality Act were passed during this period. This was a time of competing definitions of freedom. Freedom from racism, freedom from poverty. White youth sought freedoms they associated with black culture, captured imperfectly in the phrase “sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll.” Along with freedom from racist oppression, black Americans sought the opportunities associated with the white middle class: “white freedom.” Women challenged rigid gender roles. And in response to these freedoms, the changing mores, and youth culture, the contrary impulse found political expression in such figures as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan, proponents of what was presented as freedom from government interference. Meanwhile, a nonevent in the Tonkin Gulf would accelerate the nation's plunge into the Vietnam tragedy.  In narrating 1964’s moment of reckoning, when American identity began to be reimagined, McElvaine ties those past battles to their legacy today. Throughout, he captures the changing consciousness of the period through its vibrant music, film, literature, and personalities.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49742646247697,"sku":"NGR9781950994106","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":49905327276305,"sku":"CIN1950994104G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50604923650321,"sku":"CIN1950994104VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51060589265169,"sku":"NIN9781950994106","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1950994104.jpg?v=1750997735"},{"product_id":"down-and-out-in-the-great-depression-book-robert-s-mcelvaine-9780807858912","title":"Down and Out in the Great Depression","description":"This is a new edition of a classic book for a new generation.\"\"Down and Out in the Great Depression\"\" is a moving, revealing collection of letters by the forgotten men, women, and children who suffered through one of the greatest periods of hardship in American history. Mainly because of his radio talks, thousands felt they knew President Franklin Roosevelt personally and could confide in him about their troubles. Sifting through some 15,000 letters from government and private sources, Robert McElvaine has culled nearly 200 examples that best show the problems, thoughts, and emotions of ordinary people during this time. For this twenty-fifth anniversary edition, McElvaine provides a new foreword recounting the history of the book, its impact on the historiography of the Depression, and its continued importance today.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50119939031313,"sku":"CIN0807858919G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50140202402065,"sku":"CIN0807858919A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50763129225489,"sku":"CIN0807858919VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50956029067537,"sku":"GOR014144757","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ NEW \/ INGRAM","offer_id":51007844450577,"sku":"NIN9780807858912","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":51691069571345,"sku":"GOR009463245","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53149346300177,"sku":"GOR012326560","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0807858919.jpg?v=1752976658"},{"product_id":"down-and-out-in-the-great-depression-book-robert-s-mcelvaine-9780807840993","title":"Down and Out in the Great Depression","description":"Down and Out in the Great Depression is a moving, revealing collection of letters by the forgotten men, women, and children who suffered through one of the greatest periods of hardship in American history.  Sifting through some 15,000 letters from government and private sources, Robert McElvaine has culled nearly 200 communications that best show the problems, thoughts, and emotions of ordinary people during this time.  Unlike views of Depression life \"\"from the bottom up\"\" that rely on recollections recorded several decades later, this book captures the daily anguish of people during the thirties. It puts the reader in direct contact with Depression victims, evoking a feeling of what it was like to live through this disaster.  Following Franklin D. Roosevelt's inauguration, both the number of letters received by the White House and the percentage of them coming from the poor were unprecedented.  The average number of daily communications jumped to between 5,000 and 8,000, a trend that continued throughout the Roosevelt administration.  The White House staff for answering such letters -- most of which were directed to FDR, Eleanor Roosevelt, or Harry Hopkins -- quickly grew from one person to fifty.  Mainly because of his radio talks, many felt that they knew the president personally and could confide in him. They viewed the Roosevelts as parent figures, offering solace, help, and protection.  Roosevelt himself valued the letters, perceiving them as a way to gauge public sentiment.  The writers came from a number of different groups -- middle-class people, blacks, rural residents, the elderly, and children.  Their letters display emotional reactions to the Depression -- despair, cynicism, and anger -- and attitudes toward relief.  In his extensive introduction, McElvaine sets the stage for the letters, discussing their significance and some of the themes that emerge from them. By preserving their original spelling, syntax, grammar, and capitalization, he conveys their full flavor.  The Depression was far more than an economic collapse.  It was the major personal event in the lives of tens of millions of Americans.  McElvaine shows that, contrary to popular belief, many sufferers were not passive victims of history.  Rather, he says, they were \"\"also actors and, to an extent, playwrights, producers, and directors as well,\"\" taking an active role in trying to deal with their plight and solve their problems.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50202015793425,"sku":"CIN0807840998G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51100491284753,"sku":"CIN0807840998VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":53558107930897,"sku":"CIN0807840998A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0807840998.jpg?v=1757412993"},{"product_id":"grand-theft-jesus-book-robert-s-mcelvaine-9780307395801","title":"Grand Theft Jesus","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":50346883219729,"sku":"CIN0307395804A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50714006126865,"sku":"GOR008939691","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":51693683769617,"sku":"CIN0307395804G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53523205292305,"sku":"CIN0307395804VG","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0307395804.jpg?v=1751356830"},{"product_id":"what-s-left-book-robert-s-mcelvaine-9781558506299","title":"What's Left?","description":null,"brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53617283760401,"sku":"CIN1558506292G","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/9781558506299.jpg?v=1780455615"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-robert-s-mcelvaine.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}