Stormy Weather: Crosslights on the Nineteen Thirties: An Informal Social History of the United States 1929-41

by J.C. Furnas

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Black Squalls to Windward
The Dynamic Decade
The Real Thing Was Bad Enough
Self-sent Men
They Didn't Just Stand There
The Little Red Foxes
What They Said About Dixie
Where Angels Feared to Tread
Ozymandias in Washington
Fire Under the Elms
Some Corner of a Foreign Field
The Pot & the Cradle
There Will Be No Tomorrow
Appendix of Definitions
Notes
Nonperiodical Sources Quoted
Index

Genres: History, Nonfiction

669 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1977

About the author

Full name: Joseph Chamberlain Furnas.

Reviews

[Erik Graff · Rating 5 out of 5]

The quality of this social history is comparable to William Manchester's The Glory and the Dream, which is to say that it is very good indeed, better even in one aspect in that it covers only twelve years rather than the four-plus decades assayed by Manchester. Otherwise the two are very comparable, both of them well-written, both thematically organized with an eye to 'present' relevance, both engagingly entertaining, both emphasizing the cultural over the--ultimately inescapable--political.

A social history covering such a span of time cannot be complete. Only so many themes can be meaningfully covered in the span of some seven hundred pages. Besides, one wonders what might constitute a yardstick by which to measure? Part of the art of such a history is to make each chosen theme appear importantly significant. This both Manchester and Furnas happily achieve.

For me the look back to the thirties is a an examination of what was to my father, born in 1921 and still alive today on the eve of 2014, what the sixties were to me, there being a thirty-year age difference between us. Much of it was familiar, not only from previous study, but also because the contemporaries of both my father and of his mother, with whom I had much contact while growing up, still substantially lived in that past world, a time enduring in their attitudes, even in the furnishings of their homes.

Furnas himself came to manhood in the thirties. Some of the occasions are described in first person. Like Dad, not all his attitudes are congenial to me (he's a New Deal liberal, not a socialist and certainly not a member of the 'New Left' of my youth), but by putting it in context from his own perspective and his own time, even his more off-putting ideas become more understandable.

This volume appears to be the third of a series he wrote, beginning with America from colonial times to World War One, continuing with that war and the twenties and ending with this one. I haven't the second, the one that will bring me closer to grandmother and her generation, but will be looking out for it. I have the first and hope to be able to read it soon.

[M Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as good as the first of Furnas' trilogy, much better than the second.

This is essentially a history of high-brow culture in the U.S. in the 1930s - so lots on the theatre and literature and very little on the movies, baseball or the Three Stooges. Furnas devotes a tremendous amount of attention to Communist efforts to infiltrate cultural spheres, and from my own work, this is an immensely valuable contribution.

Since we see the developments of today as rooted in the 1960s and Furnas directly traces the developments of the 1960s to the 1930s, this is all quite topical now 50 years after the book was published.

It's docked a star for no mention of Joe DiMaggio, the Gashouse Gang or the Three Stooges.

[Tim Basuino · Rating 4 out of 5]

This took me over five weeks to read, but it was well worth it. Ebbs and flows abound, but one learns a lot about the Depression (not as dire as advertised) and the genesis of America's War on Drugs (a colossal waste of time and resources).