New York, New York

Why are people drawn to such different periods of history? I read that colleges offer few military history courses, which seems odd since the author noted that when they do,  the classes have to be held in 300-student auditoriums to accommodate demand. A friend's son, Levi, knows everything you could possibly think to ask about the Alamo and the west in general, not to mention western movies, especially if the Duke even thought about being in them.

In the same way that Levi can't read enough about the western United States, so I love to read and write about the 1920s and 1930s, two decades that saw immense change and even turmoil. 

Not long after the soldiers returned from WWI, the country slid into a serious recession, from which emerged eight years of some of the greatest wealth gains in the history of the nation. And the rich weren't the only ones to gain, though those who made fortunes get most of the attention. In part because of technological advances akin to what we see today with, say, Apple, the country made real production and growth gains.

Then came October of 1929 and ten years of the Great Depression, caused primarily by government interference. Had Hoover and FDR not tried to engineer the country and the economy (read The Forgotten Man), the Great Depression would have been another cyclical recession.


One of the things that fascinates me is people's responses to the crash and the rise of Communism fueled by it. I'm almost finished with two short stories, one of which I hope to get out for free in the next couple of weeks, both of which look at New York City in the 1930s. I want to look at why people became so fascinated with Russian Communism and how the movement impacted their lives.

I'm even more interested, though, in understanding why some people turned 180 degrees away from it when they heard of the purges, while others chalked a few million deaths up to the price that had to be paid to restructure society.

I always want to know why people do the things they do, make the choices they make, don't make other choices even in light of compelling information. And this period of history provides more than enough grist for my little mill.