Bright Dreams, Hard Times: America in the Thirties

Zora Neale Hurston and boys in Eatonville, Fla., during a

Lomax-Hurston-Barnicle recording expedition to Georgia

1. The changing relationship between Americans and their national government

2. Flowering of artistic and intellectual activity

3. Role of religion in public life

4. Democratization of American culture through new technologies (radio and sound movies)

Flowering of artistic and intellectual activity

The changing relationship between the American government and its people brought about an unexpected change for American artists and intellectuals. Realizing that not everyone was cut out for the shovel, the early Federal Emergency Relief Agency (1933-1935) established a professional projects division. The Historical Records Survey employed hundreds of writers in a massive effort to catalog state and local records of historical importance.

The Works Projects Administration’s (WPA) Project Number One employed artists, musicians, writers, actors, and scholars on wide-ranging projects, including the production of local and state guides that captured regional differences and provided a generation of travelers with an introduction to the states. Artists and scholars captured the intellectual enthusiasm of the time and presented it to the American public through diverse venues.

By the end of the 1930s, WPA agencies completed thousands of murals and pieces of sculpture, performed thousands of public musical performances, and produced volumes of written work. 

WPA artists included authors John Steinbeck, Zora Neale Hurston, and Richard Wright; poet Langston Hughes; artists Selma Burke, Lucienne Block, and Jackson Pollock; actor Orson Welles; photographer Dorothea Lange, and many more.

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