Purging the Rottenness from the System

Abstract

When the Great Depression descended on America, many people had no idea why and no idea about how long it would last. Others, however, experienced no such doubts. For them, the Depression reinforced their understanding of how the world worked and confirmed their most sacred beliefs. This chapter examines their righteous response to the Great Depression. It locates that righteousness in three admittedly far-flung spheres: the laissez-faire fundamentalism of classical economics like Joseph Schumpeter and then secretary of the treasury Andrew Mellon; the apocalyptic interpretations of the Great Depression on the part of many Christians, who believed the Depression signaled the beginning of the end times and the Second Coming of Christ; and one famous Depression short story, F. Scott Fitzgerald’s “Babylon Revisited.” As far apart as these sources are, each nevertheless conveyed a sense that the Depression was a punishment for past misdeeds, whether economic, spiritual, or moral, and, therefore, was a punishment that had to be endured, even embraced, for the good life to resume.