American society was much less homogeneous during the Great Depression (1929 - 1941) than it became after World War II. There were still quite sharply defined classes, divided along economic, geographic, and ethnic lines. Each group was affected by the Depression, but in different ways and to different degrees. Each had its own tradition of popular song, and this carefully compiled sampling of recordings from the thirties gives a vivid picture of how each fared and how it reacted to the almost universal adversity of that decade. Included is a 36-page booklet with a lengthy essay on the Great Depression and copious notes on each recording by noted American music scholar Charles Hamm.

Brother, Can You Spare A Dime? (Bing Crosby); The Boulevard of Broken Dreams (Deane Janis); Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries (Rudy Vallee); In the Still of the Night (Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra); Love Walked In (Kenny Baker); On the Good Ship Lollipop (Shirley Temple); Unemployment Stomp (Big Bill Broonzy); The Gold Digger's Song (We're in the Money) (Dick Powell); All in Down and Out Blues (Uncle Dave Macon); Fifteen Miles from Birmingham (The Delmore Brothers); The Coal Loading Machine (The Evening Breezes Sextet); NRA Blues (Bill Cox); I Ain't Got No Home in This World Anymore (Woody Guthrie); The Death of Mother Jones (Gene Autry); All I Want (The Almanac Singers and Pete Seeger); The White Cliffs of Dover (Glenn Miller and His Orchestra)