----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- "Noting the lack of consensus on the causes, depth, and length of the Great Depression Parker chose to begin the volume" with a chapter overviewing the decade. I've also found the lack of consensus amongst second generation Americans regarding the actual depth and length of the depression to be a bit surprising. It's all anecdotal, of course, but some older Americans do hold the view that stories regarding the severity of the downturn are exaggerations and that, in actuality, things were not as bad then as people claim they were today. Of course, throwing about "facts" like 25% unemployment always make for an interesting attention grabber in the classroom and, of course, talking about Brown's research into the strength of the vertical shift can add some luster to the time worn Keynesian cross, nonetheless, it would make things more believable if some research could be included with all this on how we came up with some of the accepted traditional "Great Depression" statistics we rely on when discussing this event. For example, where does the 25% unemployment figure come from? Chas Anderson ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]