The Great Depression and the New Deal: Key Themes and Documents. By James S. Olson and Mariah Gumpert. Unlocking American History. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2017. 295 pages. Acid-free $48 (ISBN 978-1-4408-3462-2). E-book Available (978-1-4408-3463-9).

Olsen and Gumpert designed this new book to serve the ready reference needs of “advanced high school and early undergraduate readers” (vii), but they emphasize support for high school advanced placement US history classes and the Common Core curriculum. The content of the book covers the period from the Stock Market crash in October 1929 until the beginning of World War II in September 1939, but the focus on “key themes” means that the authors do not seek the broad topical scope of an encyclopedia.

The alphabetically arranged topics, mostly from one to five paragraphs in length, are weighted heavily toward biography of influential persons, laws passed by Congress, New Deal programs, and selected Supreme Court cases. There are topical entries related to agriculture, banking, industry, labor, politics, groups of workers, arts programs, and a few well-known writers and photographers. There is less emphasis on social and cultural aspects of American society and even important political topics during the period. There are no index entries for Republican or Democratic parties but there are entries for the Socialist Party and Union Party. There are no index references to migrant workers, sports, women as a subject (there are five biographical entries for women), isolationism, or to the House Un-American investigations of the 1930s. Although the entry on Walter Frances White mentions his work on the Federal Anti-Lynching Bill in Congress, the subject index does not mention lynching or anti-lynching. There are no index entries under Blacks or African Americans, but there are entries for Scottsboro Boys, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and Black Cabinet. Of course, users of the e-book may discover brief mention of topics that do not appear in the index, such as the mention of Democratic Party in twelve entries. All entries offer a brief list of further readings, and a bibliography organized by topics appears near the end of the book. In addition, the authors provide a chronology of the Great Depression in the United States, and topical lists of entries.

The authors selected ten excerpts from documents that offer students examples of primary sources. There are two photographs and eight texts from presidential public addresses, federal laws, an Executive Order, and a magazine article about teachers in the Depression. In addition, the authors provide sample essay questions relating to the documents and tips for answering the questions.

The new book has a narrower scope compared with the Encyclopedia of the Great Depression and the New Deal (Sharpe, 2001), which covers many more topics in longer essays and has many more document texts. The new book, particularly provided as an e-book, can serve as a resource that provides brief information and directs students to more in-depth sources.—David Lincove, History, Public Affairs and Philosophy Librarian, Ohio State University Libraries, Columbus, Ohio