A Tale of Two Depressions

NEWS. . .





15 January

Bing Crosby, "Brother Can You Spare A Dime?"


17 January

"Ain't We Got Fun" (1921)

The Cocoanuts (1929)

"I'm In The Market for You" (1930)

World Inequality Database


22 January

Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here (1935)

Nathanael West, A Cool Million: The Dismantling of Lemuel Pitkin (1934)


The Great Gatsby (trailer) (2013)

The Great Gatsby (trailer) (1974)

The Great Gatsby (clip) (1949)


24 January

Alan B. Krueger, "The Rise and Consequences of Inequality in the United States" (2012)

charts

Alan B. Krueger, "Land of Hope and Dreams: Rock and Roll, Economics and Rebuilding the Middle Class" (2013)

The American Dream, quantified

Notre Dame, mobility

 


29 January

"We're in the Money" (1933)

Hoover's inaugural address (1929)

FDR's first inaugural address and video (1933)

Obama's first inaugural address (2009)

Trump's inaugural address (2017)

 

7 February

"This Land Is Your Land": Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger & Bruce Springsteen, and full lyrics

FDR, "The Forgotten Man" (7 April 1932)

"Remember My Forgotten Man" (1933)

Street of Forgotten Men

Forgotten Man's Hour Radio Show

Jon McNaughton, "The Forgotten Man"

Letters to Obama

 

12-14 February

West Wing, "Missing Letter"

Louis Armstrong & the Mills Bros, "W.P.A."


Billy Holiday, "Strange Fruit"

Abel Meeropol, "Bitter Fruit"

Lynching of Abram Smith and Thomas Shipp (7 August 1930, Marion, IN)

B&W photos from the FSA-OWI (1935-1945)

color, Bayou Bourbeau plantation operated by Bayou Bourbeau Farmstead Association (a cooperative established through the cooperation of FSA)

Arthur Rothstein and Gee's Bend

"The Quilts of Gee's Bend"

other LofC collections: Lomax Collection and WPA Posters

 

Gid Tanner, "Tanner's Farm" (1934)

 

21 February

Bob Dylan, "Hard Times In New York Town" (1962)

Bob Dylan, "Maggie's Farm" (1965)

Lead Belly, "Bourgeois Blues" (1937)

Ry Cooder, "Bourgeois Blues" (1976)

 

Modern Times

Judy Garland, "Smile" (1936)

 

26 February

"This Land Is Your Land": Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger & Bruce Springsteen, and full lyrics

Gary Clark Jr., "This Land" (2019)

King Vidor, Our Daily Bread (1934)

Florence Reese, "Which Side Are You On?" (1931)

Dropkick Murphys, "Which Side Are You On?" (2001)

Tom Morello (The Nightwatchman), "Which Side Are You On?" (2011)

 

Guy Livingston, “The Cradle That Rocked: Rediscovering Marc Blitzstein” (4-part series)

Marc Blitzstein, String Quartet "Italian" (1930)

Mark Blitzstein discusses The Cradle Will Rock

John Houseman, the story behind The Cradle

Clifford Odets, Waiting for Lefty (1935)

 

28 February

Patti LuPone, "Moll's Song" (1985)

"The Press Song" (2009)

"Art for Art's Sake" (1964)

PJ Harvey, "Nickel Under the Foot"

Lee Hunter, "Joe Worker" (2007)

Jerry Orbach, "The Cradle Will Rock" (1964)

 

Emily Watson, "Moll's Song" (1999)

Opera Saratoga The Cradle Will Rock (2018)

The Threepenny Opera (1931, English subtitles)

The Threepenny Opera (1952, Blitzstein translation, Leonard Bernstein conductor)

Lotte Lenya, "Mack the Knife"

Dave van Ronk, "Mack the Knife"

Lotte Lenya, "Seerauber Jenny" (Pirate Jenny) (1931)

Marianne Faithful, "Pirate Jenny" (1998)


5 March

income (1913-1970)

unemployment (1929-1942)

Dwight D. Eisenhower (17 January 1961)

corporate taxes

individual and corporate taxes

tax rates

Allen Ginsberg, "America"

Muddy Waters, "Rollin' Stone"

John Lee Hooker, "Sometimes You Make Me Feel So Bad"

Bob Dylan: "Talkin' John Birch Paranoid Blues", "Chimes of Freedom", "Subterranean Homesick Blues", and "It's Alright, Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)"

Martin Luther King, Jr. (30 April 1967)

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, "Ohio"

 

7 March

income (1970-2007)

productivity and wages

Madonna, "Material Girl" (1984)

Public Enemy, "Fight the Power" (1989)

 

Bruce Springsteen, "My Hometown" (1984)

Dire Straits, "Money for Nothing" (1985)

Gordon Gekko "Greed is Good" (Wall Street, 1987)

Gordon Gekko "Gordon Gekko is back!" (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, 2010)

Gordon Gekko "You're all pretty much fucked" (Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, 2010)

 

19 March

Woody Guthrie, "Talking Columbia" (1944)

Roll on Columbia: Woody Guthrie and the Bonneville Power Administration (2010)

 

Pink Floyd, "Money" (1973)

Talking Heads, "America Is Waiting" (1981)

Talking Heads, "This Must Be the Place" (1983)

Judas Priest, "Stained Class" (1978)

Ramones, "I Wanted Everything" (1978)

The Clash, "Clash City Rockers" (1978)

Wealth Inequality in America

average incomes (1947-2014)

average wealth (1947-2014)

income shares (1980-2014)

 

28 March

W. C. Handy/Lee Hunter, "Wall Street Blues" (1929)

Procol Harum, "Wall Street Blues" (2003)

 

Zbigniew Herbert, "Report from a Besieged City"

Cosmopolis, "The Rat as the New Unit of Currency"

Datek Online, "The Wall"

Cosmopolis, "A Protest Against the Future"

union rat, South Bend (2017)

union rats

James Cagney, "You dirty, yellow-bellied rat!"

Departed, rats: Nicholson and final scene

 

2 April

Peter Gabriel, "Big Time"

"Going in Style"

Inside Job: press kit

Inside Job: study guide

Charlie Rose interviews Charles Ferguson

 

4 April

Bachman Turner Overdrive, "Taking Care of Business"

Ry Cooder, "No Banker Left Behind"

Too Big to Fail: financial crisis explained

Bill Moyers, "Six Films on the Financial Crisis"

 

11 April

Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello, "Ghost of Tom Joad"

Nightwatchman, "This Land Is Your Land"

Los Angeles Times, Occupy Wall Street: Timeline

Helen Kallao, Occupy Chicago (photos)

Federal Reserve Bank of New York, "We Are the 99 Percent, 1765 Edition"

Harvard Ec 10 students, "An Open Letter to Greg Mankiw"

Occupy Wall Street, Mic Check at Zuccotti Park (25 September 2011)

Richard D. Wolff, Occupy Wall Street (4 October 2011)

"Eighteen Noteworthy Musical Performances for the Occupy Movement"

IMF, declining labor share

Lupe Fiasco, "The End of the World"

Unions and Inequality

 

18 April

Ani DiFranco, Which Side Are You On?

The Corporation, "A Legal Person"

Peter Schiff, "I am the 1%. Let's Talk"

Tax Policy Center, Top Marginal Tax Rates Over Time

 

23 April

Lucinda Williams, "Lake Charles"

Drew Landry, "BP Blues"

Lake Charles

PBS Newshour, "Why red states depend on and distrust government the most" (2016)

PBS Newshour, "Why Louisianans blame government, not corporations, for pollution problems" (2019)

Democracy at Work, "Economics and Red States: Arlie Hochschild" (starting at 26:50)

Amanda Taub, "Why Americans Vote 'Against Their Interest': Partisanship"

 

30 April

Woody Guthrie, "I Ain't Got No Home"

Ryan Harvey, Ani DiFranco, and Tom Morello, "Old Man Trump" by Woody Guthrie (words) and Ryan Harvey (music)

Ras Kass, feat. Doc Hollywood, "The Great Recession"

Bob Dylan, "Pay in Blood"

comparison (PPT)