Surviving Hardship: What We Can Learn From History

Why Write about the Great Depression?

By Jill Caugherty

People sometimes ask why I chose the Great Depression as one of the central time periods of my novel, Waltz in Swing Time. After all, they reason, it’s a dreary chapter in history. One bookseller remarked, “we don’t want to relive it.” 

Perhaps that’s why a surprisingly large number of twentieth century historical novels take place instead during World War II. Wonderful books such as The Nightingale, Motherland, and All the Light We Cannot See feature heroic protagonists — soldiers, spies, medical personnel, ordinary citizens — who defy or resist totalitarian governments, despite great personal danger. 

In the thirties, United States citizens didn’t struggle against an oppressive regime, but many suffered severe hardships after losing their jobs and income. The country faced an economic divide between the wealthy bankers and Wall Street investors whose reckless speculations may have precipitated the crash of 1929, and the rural communities who struggled to keep their farms as their crop income declined and they couldn’t make mortgage payments.

This may sound all too familiar. In fact, not only did I write about the Depression because of its odd under-representation in historical fiction, I chose it because I see striking parallels between the economic inequality of the thirties and our current economic climate. Today, we see huge disparities in wealth between the upper one percent (not surprisingly, many of whom are Wall Street investors and bankers) and the remaining ninety-nine percent of American citizens. This disparity continues to widen. The wide stock market fluctuations on news of a global pandemic or trade wars also demonstrate how quickly fortunes can rise and fall.

In Waltz in Swing Time, Irene Larsen and her family struggle to make ends meet on their farm in Utah. They’re forced to sell prized possessions and take in boarders, and they watch neighbors lose their farms to bank foreclosures. Unfortunately, this was an all too common reality in the thirties, where in the U.S., the unemployment rate rose as high as twenty-five percent. In urban areas, some homeless Americans lived in shantytowns known as “Hoovervilles,” and reluctantly turned to soup lines for meals. After FDR took office as the nation’s thirty-second President in March 1933, his New Deal programs gradually began turning the tide; and the Depression officially ended with the start of World War II.

In their own way, the people who made it through the Depression were heroic. Sure, they didn’t rescue injured airmen from burning planes or smuggle Jews to safety through the Pyrenees, but they made tough choices and sacrifices for their families and communities. Many of them came together to help each other through difficult times – buying back farm possessions at penny auctions, for example, or raising community gardens to feed neighbors. Musicians, artists, writers, and actors also united to entertain people and distract them from their troubles. The WPA commissioned beautiful murals and paintings by artists around the country, and people found a little reprieve by watching movies and listening to radio programs. In Waltz in Swing Time, Irene entertains Depression-weary tourists at Zion National Park by singing on a variety show.

Maybe, too, surviving hardship helped the people of the thirties gain strength, self-reliance, and a new perspective on what truly matters. That said, I think it’s useful to reflect on this overlooked period of history and draw comparisons with modern times. In the face of a threat to our global economy and livelihoods, perhaps we can put aside the trifles that don’t matter, make a few difficult sacrifices, and come through it together, stronger.

Bio: Jill Caugherty is the author of the debut novel WALTZ IN SWING TIME (Black Rose Writing, April 2020). Her short stories have been published in 805Lit and Oyster River Pages, and her debut short story, “Real People,” was nominated for the 2019 PEN/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.  

An award-winning marketing manager with over twenty-five years of experience in the high tech industry, she lives in Raleigh, North Carolina with her husband and daughter.  

Learn more on her website https://www.jillcaugherty.com

 

WALZ IN SWING TIME, Jill Caugherty

Growing up in a strict Utah farm family during the Great Depression, Irene Larsen copes with her family’s hardship by playing piano. Even after an unthinkable tragedy strikes, Irene clings to her dream of becoming a musician. When a neighbor’s farm is foreclosed, Irene’s brother marries the neighbor’s daughter, who moves in with the Larsens and coaches Irene into winning leading roles in musicals. Clashing with her mother, who dismisses her ambition as a waste of time and urges her to become a farmer’s wife, Irene leaves home.

During a summer gig at Zion National Park, where Irene sings in a variety show for Depression-weary tourists, she meets professional dancer Spike, a maverick who might be her ticket to a musical career. But does pursuing her dream justify the steep price of losing her home and family?

Alternating between Irene’s ninetieth year in 2006 at an assisted living home and her coming-of-age in the thirties, Waltz in Swing Time is a poignant tale of mother-daughter relationships, finding hope amidst loss, and forging an independent path, against all odds. It will resonate with readers of Paula McClain, Rae Meadows, Therese Anne Fowler, and Amy Tan.

“Over the course of this bright novel, Caugherty manages to seamlessly transition between two wildly different decades while maintaining a fresh, youthful voice—which is essential in a book about an ambitious dreamer who struggles through hard times… It’s a hopeful yet realistic story, and the letters that Irene receives from her future husband are a particular joy to read… A reflective tale of growing up creative in a stifling environment and finding true love.” -Kirkus Reviews

“Waltz in Swing Time is a moving account of a life long-lived, the extraordinary stories behind a seemingly ordinary woman. Shifting masterfully between the past and present, Caugherty renders the indignities of old age and the early history of Irene’s life with equal richness. A lovely debut novel from a deft and insightful writer.” Rae Meadows, bestselling author of I Will Send Rain and Mercy Train

BUY THE BOOK HERE

 

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Category: On Writing