This interdisciplinary study blends textual analysis with social history to chart the intellectual and artistic ferment of Depression-era America. In Rousing the Nation, Laura Browder explores the fiction, drama, and film produced during the decade by socially conscious intellectuals who struggled to create a uniquely American art. Browder first considers authors James T. Farrell, Josephine Herbst, and John Dos Passos, arguing that their work successfully...