Research Catalog

Title

No depression in heaven : the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the transformation of religion in the Delta / Alison Collis Greene.

Author

Greene, Alison Collis

Publication

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2016]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xvi, 317 pages : illustrations, maps; 25 cm

Summary

"This revised award-winning Yale dissertation brings to life the distinct but intersecting worlds of black and white Americans during the Depression. A collapsing cotton economy, alternating floods and droughts, and racial stratification meant that hard times came early and stayed late in Memphis and the Delta. By 1929, the region teetered on the brink of crisis and churches could no longer carry the burden. Change came quickly and relentlessly during the 1930s, and this upheaval carved new contours in the religious landscape. The ethnic and theological diversity of Memphis and the Delta included an array of black and white Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians typical to the South, a number of Pentecostal and holiness denominations, a small but disproportionately influential Jewish community, a thriving minority of black and white Catholics, and a homegrown denomination, the Church of God in Christ (COGIC). The region embodied broader national trends in American religion during the 1930s, both despite and because of its particularities. From the poorest sharecropper in Arkansas to the wealthiest philanthropist in New York, Depression-era Americans re-envisioned the relationship between church and state and reevaluated the responsibilities of each for the welfare of the nation and its people. This groundbreaking historical study focuses on the effects of the Great Depression on American religious life, exploring the shifts in power among American religious bodies and the everyday lives of American citizens as a result of the Great Depression"--Provided by publisher.

Subject

• New Deal (1933-1939)
• 1900 - 1999
• Depressions > 1929 > Arkansas > Arkansas Delta
• Depressions > 1929 > Tennessee > Memphis
• New Deal, 1933-1939 > Arkansas > Arkansas Delta
• New Deal, 1933-1939 > Tennessee > Memphis
• Social change > Arkansas > Arkansas Delta > History
• Social change > Tennessee > Memphis > History
• Depressions
• Race relations
• Religion
• Social change
• Arkansas Delta (Ark.) > Religion > 20th century
• Memphis (Tenn.) > Religion > 20th century
• Arkansas Delta (Ark.) > Race relations > History > 20th century
• Memphis (Tenn.) > Race relations > History > 20th century
• Arkansas > Arkansas Delta
• Tennessee > Memphis

Genre/Form

History.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-297) and index.

Contents

Introduction: We Didn't Know We Was Poor -- Part I: Crisis -- Depression-Whipped -- Part II: Depression Religion -- A Spiritual Famine -- Where to Send People for Help? -- Part III: The New Deal -- A Political Deal or Divine Providence? -- Not One Cent for Religion -- Part IV: Religion Reinvented -- New Religious Alliances -- Epilogue: The Myth of the Redemptive Depression -- Appendix: Major Religious Groups and Denominations in Memphis and the Delta.

Call Number

Sc E 16-848

ISBN

• 9780199371877
• 0199371873

LCCN

2015018302

OCLC

933334650

Author

Greene, Alison Collis, author.

Title

No depression in heaven : the Great Depression, the New Deal, and the transformation of religion in the Delta / Alison Collis Greene.

Publisher

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2016]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 263-297) and index.

Chronological Term

1900 - 1999

Research Call Number

Sc E 16-848