Concerns of Religion

The late 1920s saw a rise in religious conservatism that only crested as the Depression saw more souls turning to a higher power for consolation. Categorizing the impact of this wasn't quite the same as mapping locations or dates, though - I needed to see who was actively talking about the presence religion had in their lives. While this textual analysis was largely angled towards Christianity, which seems to have been most commonly prescribed as a remedy for the domestic strife brought on by unemployment and the other financial difficulties of the Depression, it is important to remember that Christianity has never been the only religion of America. In fact, one of the most interesting documents in this corpus that stood out to me was an account of a Jewish man discussing his fears that the facism rising in Europe would find its way to America, and how "he feels it, fascism, like a wind on his back"[1]. Religion remained a way of life for many through the hardships of the 1930s, but one's practice definitely affected one's concerns.

Works Cited: [1] Vogel, Joseph. N. Bernstein. Library of Congress, 27 Mar. 1939, https://www.loc.gov/resource/wpalh2.25010503/?sp=1.