Dirty Thirties In the News

I’ve always been a Dirty Thirties kind of Dieselpunk. The 1930s saw the horrors of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the rise of Fascism and the start of World War 2. Yet, it also saw the eternal optimism of the human spirit with the New Deal, world changing inventions (such as the jet engine and FM radio) and the Golden Age of Radio and Motion Pictures.

Recently there have been a rash of online items related to the Dirty Thirties. All three article linked here relates to dieselpunk in they all tie that era in with today.

‘The Battle Hymn of The Great Depression’ by Rosa Inocencia Smith (The Atlantic)

This article explains the title to John Steinbeck's novel ‘The Grapes of Wrath’ and shows how this classic of American fiction ties into today’s US Presidential election.

‘The Case for a New WPA’ by Alana Semuels (The Atlantic)

This commentary explores the Works Projects Administration of the New Deal and the writer makes a compelling argument for a similar national program for the 21st century.

The World-Wide Elimination of Polio (Popular Science)

Polio was one of the great scourges of the Diesel Era. The disease’s most famous victim being President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. This article in Popular Science explores the exciting advances in the fight against polio and how the dramatic drop in the number of cases indicate a high likelihood of its world-wide eradication by the end of 2016.