Making Do and Doing Without: Kansas in the Great Depression

Abstract

Making Do and Doing Without: Kansas in the Great Depression is a 26-part radio/newspaper series that focuses on the lives of Kansans in the Great Depression. During the 1930s, the American Dream became tarnished for many. Numerous individuals deferred their goals, tightened their belts, and learned to cope with everyday adversity. Others experienced personal or economic failures and gave up or left the state. How Kansans confronted these hard times is the theme of this series. The objectives of Making Do have been to assess the effects of the Great Depression and to examine the problems created by the twin calamities of economic depression and drought. We hope that examining the lives of those who lived through the Depression will provide information that will help us better understand our own situation today. The humanities, in particular history and literature, have provided the topics, themes, issues, and research materials for the articles. Music of the 1930s was used to complement the interviews and narrative of the radio version of the series.