Articles and Books

Stable Prices, Stable Economy

Conventional wisdom holds that if policymakers are too focused on controlling inflation, then employment, output growth and financial stability will suffer. But the conventional wisdom is wrong, according to the data. Learn more by reading “Stable Prices, Stable Economy,” the lead article of the January 2008 issue of The Regional Economist, the St. Louis Fed’s quarterly regional economic magazine. The article’s two sidebars, “Hyperinflations Make the Great Inflation Seem like a Walk in the Park" and "Price Instability Knocked Economy Off Its Feet in 1930s, 1970s," discuss historical examples of price instability.

Federal Response to Home Mortgage Distress

The article "Federal Response to Home Mortgage: Lessons from the Great Depression" by St. Louis Fed economist David C. Wheelock in the May/June issue of the St. Louis Fed's Review examines the federal response to mortgage distress during the Great Depression, focusing on the growth of mortgage debt and the subsequent sharp increase in mortgage defaults and foreclosures. It summarizes the major federal initiatives to reduce foreclosures and reform mortgage market practices, focusing especially on the activities of the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), which acquired and refinanced one million delinquent mortgages between 1933 and 1936.

Adler, David A.  The Babe & I.  Voyager Books, Harcourt Inc., 1999.

Curtis, Christopher P.  Bud, Not Buddy.  Random House Children’s Books, 2004.

Freedman, Russell.  Children of the Great Depression.  Houghton Mifflin Co., 2006.

Heidenry, John.  The Gashouse Gang.  Perseus Publishing, 2007.

Hunt, Irene.  No Promises in the Wind.  Penquin Press, 2002.

Jiles, Paulette.  Stormy Weather.  HarperCollins Publishers, 2007.

Paquette, Jack K.  A Boy’s Journey through the Great Depression.  Xlibris Corp, 2005. 

Steinbeck, John.  The Grapes of Wrath.  (Centennial edition).  Penquin Press, 2002.

Turkel, Studs.  Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression.  New Press, 2005.

Cohen, Robert.  Dear Mrs. Roosevelt:  Letters from Children of the Great Depression. University of North Carolina Press, 2002.

Dudley, William.  Examining Issues Through Political Cartoons: The Great Depression. Thomas Gale, 2004.

Dunar, Andrew J., and McBride, Dennis.  Building Hoover Dam:  An Oral History of the Great Depression. University of Nevada Press, 2001.

Egan, Timothy.  The Worst Hard Time:  The Untold Story of Those Who Survived the Great American Dust Bowl.  Houghton Mifflin Co., 2005. 

Eichengreen, Barry.  Golden Fetters: The Gold Standard and the Great Depression, 1919-1939.  Oxford University Press, 1992.

Galbraith, John Kenneth.  The Great Crash:  A Laymen’s Guide to the Stock Market Crash of 1929.  Houghton Mifflin Co., 1997.

Gordon, Linda, and Okihiro, Gary Y. (eds.).  Dorothea Lange and the Censored Images of Japanese American Internment.  W. W. Norton & Co. Inc., 2006.

Group, G., and Hanes, Sharon M.  Great Depression and New Deal:  Primary Sources.  Gale Research Inc., 2002

Hoover, Dwight W.  A Good Day’s Work:  An Iowa Farm in the Great Depression.  Ivan R. Dee, 2007.

McElvaine, Robert S., editor.  Down and Out in the Great Depression.  University of North Carolina Press, 1983.

McElvaine, Robert S.  The Great Depression:  America 1929-1941.  Crown Publishing, 1993.

Young, William H., and Young, Nancy K.  Music of the Great Depression (American History through Music Series).  Greenwood Publishing Group Inc., 2005.