WEEK 4 TUTORIAL: Living through the Depression

(29 March – )

Tutorial question

What range of responses did Australians have to the Depression?

Was Australia’s response to the Depression characterised more by social cohesion or social division? What was the meaning of 'equality of sacrifice' during the Depression? Was the suffering of the Great Depression evenly spread? How can we construct a sense of ‘the Australian experience’ of the Depression? How actively did the Australian working class resist during the Depression? What was the impact of the Depression on the family, on the birth rate, on gender relations? How is the impact of the Depression on Australian political life remembered? Explain the popularity and unpopularity of Jack Lang. What was the New Guard and where did it come from? How effective was political action as a response to the Depression? How ineffective was the Australian political structure when faced with the Depression? How important was Don Bradman? To what extent is it possible to talk about a Depression generation in Australian history? Are there lessons to be learnt for today?

Essential reading

McCalman J Struggletown: Public and Private Life in Richmond 1900-1965 Melb 1984 ch 6.
Macintyre, Stuart The Succeeding Age, Melbourne, 1986, ch 11-13

Additional reading

Martin, Allan ‘The Politics of the Depression’ in Robert Manne The Australian Century: Political Struggle in the Building of a Nation Melbourne 1999
Moore A The Secret Army and the Premier: Conservative Paramilitary Organisations in NSW 1930-32 , Kensington 1989 ch 4 & epilogue
Spenceley G 'Assessing the responses of the unemployed to the Depression of the 1930s' Journal of Australian Studies 24 May 1989
Wheatley N 'Meeting Them at the Door: Radicalism, Militancy and the Sydney Anti-Eviction Campaign of 1931' in Jill Roe (ed) Twentieth Century Sydney: Studies in Urban and Social History Sydney 1980

Other

On oral history:

*Cottle, Drew 'The rich in the Depression' Bowyang 1 (1) 1979
*Lowenstein, Wendy Weevils in the Flour: An Oral Record of the 1930s Depression in Australia Melbourne, 1978
* O'Farrell, Patrick 'Oral history: facts and fiction' Quadrant November 1979
*Shields, John All Our Labours: Oral histories of working lives in twentieth century Sydney Sydney 1992

On social impact:

Bell D Generations: grandmothers, mothers and daughters Melbourne 1987 ch 2
Bolton G A Fine Country to Starve In Nedlands 1972
*Broomhill R Unemployed Workers: A Social History of the Great Depression in Adelaide St Lucia 1978 Introduction
Cannon, Michael The Human Face of the Great Depression Mornington 1996
Dyer S 'Cramped and hedged: depression, the state and farming in South Australia' Journal of Australian Studies 2 November 1977
Louis LJ & I Turner (eds) The Depression of the 1930s Melbourne 1968
*Macintyre S 'Australian Responses to Unemployment in the Great Depression' in J Roe (ed) Unemployment Sydney 1985
Macintyre S Winners and Losers Sydney 1985
Mackinolty J (ed) The Wasted Years? Sydney 1981 various articles
McCalman, Janet Journeyings: The Biography of a Middle-Class Generation 1920-1990 Melbourne 1993
Potts, D 'Tales of Suffering in the 1930s Depression' Journal of Australian Studies June 1994
Potts D 'A positive culture of poverty represented in memories of the 1930s Depression' Journal of Australian Studies 26 May 1990
Scott, Joanne and Kay Saunders 'Happy Days are Here Again? A Reply to David Potts' Journal of Australian Studies 36 March 1993 see also Potts’ reply
Spenceley, Geoff 'The Social History of the Depression of the 1930s on the Basis of Oral Accounts: People's History or Bourgeois Construction?' Journal of Australian Studies 41 June 1994
Richardson L The Bitter Years: Wollongong During the Great Depression Sydney 1984
Rickard J '1938: The Generation Factor' Australia 1938 Bulletin no.2 1980
Spenceley, G A Bad Smash: Australia in the Depression of the 1930s Melbourne 1990
Wheatley N 'The Disinherited of the Earth' in J Mackinolty (ed) The Wasted Years? Australia's Great Depression Sydney 1981

On political economy:

Cain N Recovery Policy in Australia 1930-33: Certain Native Wisdom Canberra 1982
Cochrane P Industrialization and Dependence: Australia's Road to Economic Development 1870-1939 St Lucia 1980 ch.8
Cooksey R (ed) The Great Depression in Australia Canberra 1970
Fitzgerald, Ross Red Ted: the Life of E G Theodore Brisbane 1994
Schedvin CB Australia and the Great Depression: A Study of Economic Development and Policy in the 1920s and 1930s Sydney 1970

On politics of the right:

Amos K The New Guard Movement 1931-35 Melbourne, 1976
Cathcart M Defending the National Tuckshop: Australia's Secret Army Intrigue of 1931 Melbourne 1988
Cochrane P 'Dissident Capitalists: National Manufacturers in Conservative Politics 1917-34' in EL Wheelwright and K Buckley (ed) Essays in the Political Economy of Australian Capitalism Vol.4 Sydney, 1980
Martin, Allan Robert Menzies: A Life (2 vols) Melbourne 1993
Matthews T 'The All for Australia League' Labour History 17 1970
*McCarthy J 'All for Australia: some right wing responses to the Depression in New South Wales 1929-32' Journal of the Royal Australian Historical Society 57 1971
*McQueen H 'The Social Character of the New Guard' Arena 40 1975
Moore A 'Guns Across the Yarra: Secret Armies and the 1923 Melbourne Police Strike' in Sydney Labour History Group (ed) What Rough Beast? The State and Social Order in Australian History Sydney 1982
*Moore A 'The Old Guard and "Countrymindedness" during the Great Depression' Journal of Australian Studies 27 Nov 1990
*Moore, Andrew The right road? : a history of right-wing politics in Australia Sydney 1995

On politics of the left and the not so left:

Farrell F International Socialism and Australian Labour Sydney 1981
*Fox C 'The unemployed and the labour movement: the West Australia Relief and Sustenance Workers Union 1933-4' Studies in Western Australian History 5 1983
Gollan R Revolutionaries and Reformists Sydney 1985
Love P Labour and the Money Power: Australian Labour Populism 1890-1950 Melb 1984
Macintyre, S The Reds: The Communist Party of Australia from Origins to Illegality Sydney 1998 ch 9
Radi H & P Spearritt (eds) Jack Lang Sydney, 1977
Wheatley N 'NSW Relief Workers Struggles 1933-6' in J Roe (ed) Social Policy in Australia: Some Perspectives 1901-25 Stanmore 1976