Don Wildman

And it's a fascinating element to the discussion because you end up with a different kind of American look, a feeling like there's a certain—

realism to this country that perhaps we weren't thinking about so much before.

It's really interesting to me.

But what goes with economic collapse is social unrest, of course, big protests.

Let's talk about that in terms of, you know, how did people articulate their anger or their unsettled feelings?

What was what did it look like in that regard?

There was the World War I veterans who came to Washington and demanded the payment, early payment of their bonuses.

This is the Bonus Army, 1932.

That had been meant to be accessed in 1945, but they wanted it now.

They sent up a whole camp, didn't they?

Yeah, exactly.

Two veterans and two babies were killed in that protest.

I mean, real bad press.

The other element of this is fascinating to me always.

I'm constantly talking about this, the rise of radio and this sudden availability of information to Americans in their home.

How much did this new medium play in undoing the depression?

Because it was really an intersection, wasn't it?

And that speaks to the sort of theme of this conversation, that what was needed most of all, even within the crisis when it was happening, was a sense of trust that it would all work out okay.

And it's really not until people believe in FDR's presence and the effectiveness of the federal government and the steps that are being taken that that sort of comes back into play.

And that is really the most important factor in recovering from this.