Skip to main content
Department of State

New Jersey Historical Commission

The Hon. Tahesha Way, Lt. Governor and Secretary of State

The Great Depression in New Jersey

Grades 9 through 12

Books, Articles and Teachers Guides

America, The Dream of My Life: Selections from the WPA New Jersey Ethnic Survey.
David Steven Cohen, ed. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1990

“The Pleasures of Consumption and the Persistence of Poverty: the Economy We Live in Today”
(New Jersey's Economy in 1920, the Birth of a Consumer Society, the Great Depression, Post-Depression Economy)
pp. 66-94. In The Uses of Abundance: A History of New Jersey's Economy
Paul G. E. Clemens. New Jersey History Series. Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1992

“New Jersey Comes of Age”
(Hagueism, the Constitution of 1947, Shifting Politics)
pp. 73-85. In Reshaping New Jersey: A History of Its Government and Politics
Stanley N. Worton. New Jersey History Series. Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1997

“Prosperity, Depression, and War, 1920-1945”
(The Red Scare, the Black Worker, the Great Depression, the New Deal, World War II, Gains for Labor)
pp. 46-63. In Workers in New Jersey History
Joseph Gowaskie. New Jersey History Series. Trenton: New Jersey Historical Commission, 1996

Audio and Video

The Life and Times of Frank Hague
A one-hour radio documentary about the mayor of Jersey City from 1917-1947, an Irish political boss who was the most powerful person in New Jersey politics during the first half of the twentieth century.
A co-production of NJN Radio and the New Jersey Historical Commission, 2001

Seabrook at War
Narrated by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., a one-hour radio documentary. Contains a segment about Seabrook Farms during the Great Depression.
A co-production of the New Jersey Historical Commission and public radio station WWFM, 1995 (Real Audio)

America, The Dream of My Life
Three half-hour radio documentaries based on the Federal Writers Project's New Jersey Ethnic Survey, narrated by Eli Wallach, co-produced by David Steven Cohen and Marty Goldensohn.
A co-production of WBGO Radio and the New Jersey Historical Commission, 1992

Documents

Words That Make New Jersey History
Edited by Howard L. Green. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1995
Criticism of President Hoover (1931), pp. 219-220
A Labor Union's Vision (1935), pp. 221-222
Welfare During the Great Depression (1936),pp. 223-224
Forced on Relief Again: A Newark Woman on Welfare (1939), pp. 227-229

Internet Sites

 

 


Back
to top