Bullfrogs, Bingo, and the Little House on the Prairie: How Innovators of the Great Depression Made the Best of the Worst of Times
How Innovators of the Great Depression Made the Best of the Worst of Times (The birth, challenge, ... in America: 1920s, 1930s, 1940s Book 2)
by Jason Voiovich
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Pub Date 13 May 2025 | Archive Date 1 Aug 2025
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Description
Everything you learned about the Great Depression was wrong.
This book will show you how the Great Depression wasn't depressing at all. In fact, it was the most innovative decade in American history. We all know it—necessity is the mother of invention—but no one has told you those stories before.
In history class, you were taught that the Great Depression was all about crashing stock markets, snaking breadlines, and ecological disasters. You learned that FDR tried to put it right with the New Deal, but it was only World War II that finally succeeded in revitalizing the American economy. Or maybe, you read sappy stories about how "great" that generation was because they survived hardships.
Our grandparents just didn't survive the Great Depression. They invented our modern world!
What can you expect from me? Imagine Don Draper and Al Yankovic wrote a history book. It's like that. I've been helping inventors and companies launch products for 30 years. I know a good story when I see one. You WILL be entertained.
In this book, you'll learn:
- Why Walt Disney needed the Great Depression to make Snow White.
- How two concert pianists invented color photography.
- How out-of-work horse vets created the modern doctor's office.
- Why refrigerator sales went up during the Great Depression.
- Where we got the term "fake news."
- Who was the female pilot far more influential than Amelia Earhart. (She was way more fun!)
- All about bullfrogs, bingo, and...libertarians!
...and so much more!
The 21 stories in this book will blow your mind. You will never look at the Great Depression—or your grandparents—the same way again.
More importantly: You'll have a new respect for bad times...you might even come to appreciate the opportunity they provide!
Don't wait. Start reading Bullfrogs, Bingo, and the Little House on the Prairie today.
A Note From the Publisher
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Advance Praise
Voiovich offers a sweeping reexamination of the Great Depression that sees it as a time of moral resilience, resourcefulness, and creative invention.
In this stimulating work of historical revisionism, the author challenges conventional interpretations of the struggles of the 1930s. Although it was an age of political upheaval and fierce economic crisis, he admits, it was not a “religious calamity” characterized by pervasive despair—a characterization, he says, that simply neglects the “authentic experiences of everyday Americans.” In fact, he asserts, the economic downturn was a “catalystfor innovation” in at least three categories: the invention of widely successful products, the creation of entertainment that offered necessary distraction during difficult times, and the exaltation of heroes who were admired nationwide. In the main, the book showcases “the ingenuity of the average person who made the best of the worst of times.” Voiovich presents illuminating vignettes about the invention of Scotch tape and the proliferation of refrigerators, which were initially expensive but essential for avoiding food waste. Also, he explains how the iconic board game Monopoly, another product of the Depression, allowed average Americans to “see what it felt like to be a ruthless tycoon, if only for a few hours.” Prohibition agent Eliot Ness and DC Comics’ Superman captured the epoch’s collective admiration for devotion to the common good, he notes: “we see a new type of hero emerging in the Great Depression—a person who puts the needs of others and their community ahead of their own. People didn’t want a martyr. They wanted someone to look up to.” Throughout, the author persuasively contends that there’s a contemporary cost to false impressions of the era: an inability to fully understand one’s own economic travails, especially during the most recent recession. Overall, this is an impressively wide-ranging treatment of the age, full of liveliness and insight and conveyed in marvelously accessible prose.
An enlightening interpretation of a crucial period in American history.
https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jason-voiovich/bullfrogs-bingo-and-the-little-house-on-the-prairi/
Available Editions
| ISBN | 9781737001379 |
| PRICE | US$9.99 (USD) |
| PAGES | 370 |
