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The Way People Live
Life During the Great Depression
Describes daily life for Americans during the Great Depression, as well as some of the lasting changes that occurred such as the increased power of the federal government
- GenresNonfiction
96 pages, Hardcover
Published January 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
February 17, 2016
My experience reading "Life during the Great Depression" by Dennis Nishi was very different from any other book I have read. I truly enjoyed reading this book for many reasons because this book spoke to me on many levels. Never have I been so emotionally attached to a book like this, at times I felt like shedding a tear for some of the family's during this time period. It made me reflect on how problems like this happen everyday in third world countries.
"This is not a time for fun and games"(Dennis Nishi pg.82) was a quote from the Great Depression that really displayed how we take our fun stress free lives for granted. Little children in these days were often times forced to work and never got to experience video games or Lego time. This quote ties to the essential question perfectly; "What are the positive and negative aspects of chaos and order." The Great Depression was a state of chaos in and of itself. People had no time to do fun things and they were always living under a vail of stress. A benefit that came from the United States developing order to cope with chaos was the creation of social security.
I would recommend this book to people that love to fully invest themselves into the storyline. The stories of gruesome child labor spoke to me deeply because I was drawn in and intrigued by the books message. "Life during the Great Depression" is a book that I can see being appreciated by many regardless of their preferred style of book.
"This is not a time for fun and games"(Dennis Nishi pg.82) was a quote from the Great Depression that really displayed how we take our fun stress free lives for granted. Little children in these days were often times forced to work and never got to experience video games or Lego time. This quote ties to the essential question perfectly; "What are the positive and negative aspects of chaos and order." The Great Depression was a state of chaos in and of itself. People had no time to do fun things and they were always living under a vail of stress. A benefit that came from the United States developing order to cope with chaos was the creation of social security.
I would recommend this book to people that love to fully invest themselves into the storyline. The stories of gruesome child labor spoke to me deeply because I was drawn in and intrigued by the books message. "Life during the Great Depression" is a book that I can see being appreciated by many regardless of their preferred style of book.
October 4, 2012
The author's purpose in writing the book is to inform. Dennis Nishi is trying to make people realize what the daily life that people had during the Depression was like. It goes through the life in both the rural and city areas during this time period. Times were certainly different back then, and Dennis Nishi makes that clear in this book.
The theme of this book is that you should not take anything for granted. People's life during this time was extremely tough, both physically and mentally. Many families didn't have enough money to put food on the table for their children or themselves. Having to deal with having no money adds to the emotional aspect that the Depression had on people. After reading this book, and realizing that this is how it was back then, it makes me appreciate what I have more now, because I definitely wouldn't like to live the life that these people lived.
This book is written in a description style and it is certainly effective. The facts are easy to read, and I could put myself in the people's shoes of this time, and realize what they had to go through is much, much worse that anything I have to go through now. The book thoroughly explains all of the things that were going on during this time. For example, if I were a teenager during the Depression, in a given day during my free time I could listen to the radio, which would be a new invention, or I could go to a movie, which was very common for people to do.
My opinion on this book is that it is very interesting, and fun to read. It really makes you think about how good you have it, and how you really shouldn't take anything in your life for granted. I liked how much Dennis Nishi described all of the facts throughout the book, I could really put myself in the book and imagine being in this time period. I disliked how at some points he would go too much in depth about facts that aren't as interesting as others, but that's my opinion. If I were to change this book, I would make the pictures a little bit more descriptive so that the reader can get a better visual of what life was like then. This book is not like any other book that I have read, because I normally do not focus on books that are in the 20th century.
The theme of this book is that you should not take anything for granted. People's life during this time was extremely tough, both physically and mentally. Many families didn't have enough money to put food on the table for their children or themselves. Having to deal with having no money adds to the emotional aspect that the Depression had on people. After reading this book, and realizing that this is how it was back then, it makes me appreciate what I have more now, because I definitely wouldn't like to live the life that these people lived.
This book is written in a description style and it is certainly effective. The facts are easy to read, and I could put myself in the people's shoes of this time, and realize what they had to go through is much, much worse that anything I have to go through now. The book thoroughly explains all of the things that were going on during this time. For example, if I were a teenager during the Depression, in a given day during my free time I could listen to the radio, which would be a new invention, or I could go to a movie, which was very common for people to do.
My opinion on this book is that it is very interesting, and fun to read. It really makes you think about how good you have it, and how you really shouldn't take anything in your life for granted. I liked how much Dennis Nishi described all of the facts throughout the book, I could really put myself in the book and imagine being in this time period. I disliked how at some points he would go too much in depth about facts that aren't as interesting as others, but that's my opinion. If I were to change this book, I would make the pictures a little bit more descriptive so that the reader can get a better visual of what life was like then. This book is not like any other book that I have read, because I normally do not focus on books that are in the 20th century.
October 28, 2016
The author’s purpose of writing Life During the Great Depression is to describe the time period in which the Great Depression happened. The book describes the market crashing in 1929, and events which followed during the depression.
Throughout the book, the author describes that while the market crashed and unemployment skyrocketed, people still scraped by and found things to do while unemployed. Many jobs were low paying and had some degree of risk while working, so few people would accept it and work. As a result, people who couldn't support their families lined up at food pantries, waiting to receive their share of what food was available. Bootleggers, however, found work in selling illegal homemade alcohol or obtained it from a distributor. Some people found and started various fads and worked their way to a few seconds in the sun while not working, resulting in a cultural boom. The depression lessened and started recovering in 1938 when GDP started trending upward. Some women joined the workforce and aided in the recovery of the household economy.
The book describes the perils of those who lived during the Great Depression. The style is effective, thoroughly describing and illustrating the subtopics brought up throughout the chapters. When reading the story, chapters were broken into blurbs which made reading and learning the info much easier.
Overall, the book was great. Factual text broken down into smaller sections makes reading much easier, as well as picking back up after taking a break. In addition to that, images with great descriptions plaster the pages, giving illustrations of what went on in the Great Depression.
Throughout the book, the author describes that while the market crashed and unemployment skyrocketed, people still scraped by and found things to do while unemployed. Many jobs were low paying and had some degree of risk while working, so few people would accept it and work. As a result, people who couldn't support their families lined up at food pantries, waiting to receive their share of what food was available. Bootleggers, however, found work in selling illegal homemade alcohol or obtained it from a distributor. Some people found and started various fads and worked their way to a few seconds in the sun while not working, resulting in a cultural boom. The depression lessened and started recovering in 1938 when GDP started trending upward. Some women joined the workforce and aided in the recovery of the household economy.
The book describes the perils of those who lived during the Great Depression. The style is effective, thoroughly describing and illustrating the subtopics brought up throughout the chapters. When reading the story, chapters were broken into blurbs which made reading and learning the info much easier.
Overall, the book was great. Factual text broken down into smaller sections makes reading much easier, as well as picking back up after taking a break. In addition to that, images with great descriptions plaster the pages, giving illustrations of what went on in the Great Depression.
December 13, 2013
This book about the Great Depression is more appropriate for middle school students. It has good information, but there isn't many pictures.
March 6, 2015
Good book, easy read and very interesting. Best part: Lots of pictures! lol
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews