During the Great Depression, images of the unemployed—on bread lines, in transient camps, and in protest—fueled social anxieties about the loss of virility and power that threatened to erode the will to work, the structure of the family, and even the American republic. Addressing the needs of these “forgotten men” would, by contrast, shore up the American economy and regenerate its democracy. In this story, told frequently by administrators, journalists, and elected officials during the 1930s, saving unemployed white workingmen would have a salutary effect on all Americans. It would lead, naturally, to the restoration of civic and cultural life as well as collective and individual morality. Capturing these stories of forgotten men and women is the mission of historian Holly Allen’s new book, Forgotten Men and Fallen Women: The Cultural Politics of New Deal Narratives. Allen explores a handful of government agencies charged with employing the unemployed and...
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