Synopses & Reviews
The first account of the remarkable eighteen-month journey of Lorena Hickok, intimate friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, throughout the country during the worst of the Great Depression, bearing witness to the unprecedented ravages; an indelible portrait of an unprecedented crisis.“All I can say is that these people have GOT to have clothing—RIGHT AWAY,” Lorena Hickok wrote from drought-ravaged North Dakota in 1933. The cigar-smoking, poker-playing Hickok was the top woman news reporter of the day, and the intimate friend of Eleanor Roosevelt. Forced to abandon her thriving journalism career due to her closeness to the First Lady, Hickok was hired by FDR’s right hand man Harry Hopkins to embark upon a grueling journey to the hardest hit areas across the country, during the harshest year of the Great Depression, to report back about the degree of devastation.
Acclaimed historian Michael Golay draws on a trove of previously untapped original sources—including the moving and remarkably intimate almost daily letters between Hickok and Eleanor—to re-create that extraordinary journey, never before profiled. Hickok traveled almost nonstop for eighteen months, from January 1933 to August 1934—moving into the White House, to a room adjoining Eleanor’s for her stays in between—driving through hellish dust storms, armed rebellion by coal workers in West Virginia, and a near revolution by Midwest farmers, writing a series of deeply empathetic and searing reports to Hopkins and letters to Eleanor that constitute an unparalleled record of the worst economic crisis ever to afflict the country, and which profoundly influenced the nature of the FDR’s unprecedented relief efforts. This beautifully written account brings reveals at last Hickok’s pivotal contribution, as well as shedding important new light on her intense but ill-fated relationship with Eleanor and the forces that inevitably came between them.
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and#8220;A gem of narrative history. Michael Golay weaves together Lorena Hickok's beautifully observed field reports for Roosevelt public works czar, Harry Hopkins, with her moving personal letters to Eleanor Roosevelt, to give us a powerful account of the immense human tragedy of the Great Depression. He shines new light on the inventiveness of the Roosevelt relief efforts and provides an inspiring tale of a government that worked effectively to meet the needs of its people. This book should be assigned reading for the Obama White House and for all those in Congress who stand in the way of the president's efforts to lead us through our own challenging times.and#8221;
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andlt;divandgt;"A vivid and event-filled snapshot of a pivotal year during some of the darkest days in U.S. history. With fluid and affecting prose, Golay looks at the role Eleanor Roosevelt and her intimate friend Lorena Hickok played in helping shape some of the most important aspects of FDR's New Deal.
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andlt;divandgt;"During Lorena Hickok's harrowing journey among angry farmers, defeated miners, and frightened shop owners, a desperate old woman took
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and#8220;[A] gripping, painful account.and#8221;
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and#8220;Provides an intimate glimpse into the afflicted heartland as Hickok crisscrossed the nationand#8230;An invaluable contribution to the scholarship of the era.and#8221;
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and#8220;[A] highly detailed, richly referenced portrait.and#8221;
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andlt;divandgt; "Eminently readable and accessible." andlt;/divandgt;
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andlt;divandgt;"[A] masterful re-creation"andlt;/divandgt;
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"A moving and memorable account of the impact of the Great Depression."
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and#8220;[A] masterful re-creationand#8221;
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and#8220;Eminently readable and accessible.and#8221;
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and#8220;During Lorena Hickokand#8217;s harrowing journey among angry farmers, defeated miners, and frightened shop owners, a desperate old woman took her arm and whispered: and#8216;Donand#8217;t forget me, honey. Donand#8217;t forget me.and#8217; No one who reads andlt;iandgt;America 1933andlt;/iandgt; will forget her or the rest of them. There may be no finer documentary account of the Great Depressionand#8212;not only the material deprivation but the psychic costs.and#8221;
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and#8220;A vivid and event-filled snapshot of a pivotal year during some of the darkest days in U.S. history. With fluid and affecting prose, Golay looks at the role Eleanor Roosevelt and her intimate friend Lorena Hickok played in helping shape some of the most important aspects of FDRand#8217;s New Deal. andlt;iandgt;America 1933andlt;/iandgt; offers historical delights, outsized characters, wonderful vignettes, two seductive central characters, and a feeling that you are really seeing America as it was then. It is particularly resonant as the country once again tries to emerge from a profound economic crisis and its concomitant social unease.and#8221;
Synopsis
DURING THE HARSHEST year of the Great Depression, Lorena Hickok, a top woman news reporter of the day and intimate friend of Eleanor Roosevelt, was hired by FDRand#8217;s right-hand man Harry Hopkins to embark upon a grueling journey to the hardest-hit areas of the country to report back on the degree of devastation. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;Distinguished historian Michael Golay draws on a trove of original sourcesand#8212;including the moving, remarkably intimate, almost daily letters between Hickok and Eleanor Rooseveltand#8212;as he re-creates that extraordinary journey. Hickok traveled by car almost nonstop for eighteen months, from January 1933 to August 1934, surviving hellish dust storms, rebellions by coal workers in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, and a near revolution by Midwest farmers. A brilliant observer, Hickok wrote searing and deeply empathetic reports to Hopkins and letters to Mrs. Roosevelt that comprise an unparalleled record of the worst economic disaster in the history of the country. Historically important, they crucially influenced the scope and strategy of the Roosevelt administrationand#8217;s unprecedented relief efforts. andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;America 1933 andlt;/Iandgt;reveals Hickokand#8217;s pivotal contribution to the policies of the New Deal and sheds light on her intense but ill-fated relationship with Eleanor Roosevelt and the forces that inevitably came between them.
About the Author
Michael Golay teaches history at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, New Hampshire. He is the author of a number of books, including andlt;i andgt;A Ruined Land: The End of the Civil Warandlt;/iandgt;, a finalist for the Lincoln Prize in American History, andlt;i andgt;The Tide of Empire: Americaand#8217;s March to the Pacificandlt;/iandgt;, and andlt;i andgt;Critical Companion to William Faulknerandlt;/iandgt;. He lives in Exeter and Old Lyme, Connecticut.