This relates to my post above and to Liv's link about What Our Grandparents Thought Was Funny. A couple of years ago I bought a book, titled Wisconson Death Trip, which could go by the Liv-ian title of "What Ours Grandparent's Lives Were Really Like". The author, or compiler, IIRC, came upon glass photographic plates that once belonged to a photographer named Charles Van Schaick who worked in Black River Falls, Wisconsin in the late 1800s. The author had prints made from the plates and discovered they documented the bleak lives lead by people of that time and place. Today we might consider some of the photos insensitive. Together with the photos, the author included newspaper clippings from the same time and location as the photos were taken from.
The portrait shown us by this pairing of newspaper articles and photos gives a not so rosy picture of the times. Indeed, it would seem that recessions, depressions, suicide, murder, bombings and arson were as commonplace then as today, if not more so. None of these things are new. In fact our own recession was just beginning when I purchased the book and it (the book) made me aware that it didn't take a world wide depression to send normal people over the edge. Not long after having read WDT I would go through my own crisis, giving answer to a question raised while reading it: "What would drive these people to do these things?"
Below is an interview with the author illustrated with photos from the book.
