Growing Up by Russell Baker

             Russell Baker’s Growing Up is an educational book filled with various information that I have previously studied. The rest of this essay connects Baker’s life to the information we have studied in class about the 1920’s, The Depression, and World War 2. The above three are the three most important topics that shaped and made the modern present America.
             Russell Baker was born in 1925 and still lives today. His has a unique style of writing which charms his readers and which makes him so attractive to so many of his fans. He received his first Pulitzer Prize in 1979 for his "Observer" column and Growing Up was his second. The general summary of this book would be that Baker talks about him and his family and their struggles faced during the Depression, World War 2 and other things.
             Many bad things happened because of the Depression for Baker. Baker’s mother, Elizabeth, lost her boyfriend Oluf, along with the depression. At first he was determined to find a job and marry Elizabeth; as the time went on, Oluf couldn’t find a job and told Elizabeth to forget about him. The Great Depression lasted from October 24, 1929 until the economic recovery of the 1940s. On October 29, Black Thursday, the stock market crashed heavily, and continued to fall sharply throughout the coming weeks. As a result, the United States and the world were thrown into a decade of poverty and unemployment. The depression affected all sectors of the economy. Farm owners and agricultural workers suffered from falling crop prices. Businesses failed from a lack of investment support and a decline in the ability of the masses to afford their products. Banks closed their doors as the nation's citizens hoarded their money and defaulted on loan payments. Unemployment and hopeless poverty enveloped the nation.
             When Russell’s mother, Elizabeth, had become sixteen, she joined her 1913 high school debate, arguing the case of women’s suffrag...

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