This course examines material culture and design during, before, and after the Great Depression in the U.S., a period of acute national distress and self-consciousness. The new technologies of radio and sound movies, documentary photography, and newsreels presented a previously unseen view of the country to its people. The course will integrate film (e.g., Astaire and Rogers, Frank Capra, Busby Berkeley, etc.), documentary photography, and contemporary museum exhibitions, with attention to material culture ranging from fashion to sheet music and cars to murals. We will look at streamlining in architecture, furnishings, and appliances by industrial designers such as Russel Wright and Donald Deskey as well as at modernism and the colonial revival style and make trips where possible to relevant sites and collections in NYC such as Rockefeller Center and the U.S. Custom House where Reginald Marsh painted government sponsored murals in 1937. This was a singular moment in American cultural history during which the government itself became a source of patronage to maintain and generate popular spirit. Issues of gender, ethnicity, racism, and nationalism necessarily abound in this period of cultural unrest, but the greater population held fast to the idea of the American Dream rather than giving way to political turmoil or revolution. How? The ‘subplot’ here will be an exploration of the ways in which the 30s is re-presented, e.g., films set in the thirties and retro style. Readings come from material culture, American studies, cultural history, design, and fashion studies. Run seminar-style, the course invites student participation as vital with class presentations and a final paper required.