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Discussion on another list (H-US1918-1945) pointed to a resource  
that historians of American economics may wish to know about. 
 
In the late 1920s, at the instigation of President Herbert Hoover, a  
report on _Recent Social Trends in the United States_ was  
produced (published in 1933). The committeee that oversaw the  
project was chaired by Wesley Mitchell.  
 
Some chapters of this report are now available on the web, as the  
following message indicates: 
 
Ross Emmett 
 
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[X-Posted from H-US1918-1945] 
 
Copies of "Recent Social Trends in the United States" (1933) and its 
predecessor sister study "Recent Economic Changes in the United States" 
(1929) are not always easy to find. For that reason, sections of these 
very rich sources are available on the web as part of the Library of 
Congress's "Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer 
Economy, 1921-1929", a part of the Library's digital American Memory 
project at < http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/coolhtml/coolhome.html> 
 
Selections reproduced on the web from "Recent Social Trends in the 
United States" include the front matter, containing a "Foreword," the 
"Report of the Committee," "Addenda," Acknowledgments;" and a section 
entitled "Investigation Made Under the Auspices of the National Bureau 
of Economic Research, Inc." The last is a statement from the bureau 
about its internal organization and the staff involved in the research. 
Four chapters are reproduced in their entirety: "Consumption and the 
Standard of Living", by Leo Wolman; "Labor", by Leo Wolman; "Changes in 
New and Old Industries", by Dexter S. Kimball; and "Management", by 
Henry S. Dennison. 
 
Selections reproduced on the web from "Recent Social Trends in the 
United States" include the introductory material, containing a 
"Foreword" by President Hoover, with a list of the members of the 
President's Research Committee and the executive staff for the study; "A 
Review of Findings by the President's Research Committee on Social 
Trends;" "Acknowledgments;" and a "Prefatory Note." In addition, the 
collection includes the four chapters with the greatest bearing on 
consumer behavior in the 1920s: "Shifting Occupational Patterns", by 
Ralph G. Hurlin and Meredith B. Givens; "Labor Groups in the Social 
Structure", by Leo Wolman; " The People as Consumers", by Robert S. 
Lynd; and "Recreation and Leisure Time Activities", by Jesse Frederick 
Steiner. 
 
Many of the chapters in Recent Social Trends led later to full-length 
studies by its authors. One of these "Women in the Twentieth Century: A 
Study of their Political, Social and Economic Activities" (1933), by 
Sophonisba P. Breckinridge is also included in the Library of Congress's 
"Prosperity and Thrift: The Coolidge Era and the Consumer Economy, 
1921-1929" 
 
John Earl Haynes, 20th Century Political Historian 
Manuscript Division, Library of Congress, LM-102 
Washington, D.C. 20540-4689 
Ph: 202-707-1089, Fax: 202-707-6336 
E-mail: [log in to unmask] 
 
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