The impact of the Great Depression and New Deal on the urban South: Lynchburg, Virginia as a case study, 1929-1941

This study explored the Great Depression and the New Deal in the urban South, employing Lynchburg, Virginia as a case study. It argued that localized investigations are vital to a more complete understanding of the crises that enveloped the United States between 1929 and 1941. The work provided an account of a medium-sized southern city that did not suffer to the extent that historians have heretofore suggested other urban areas experienced the Great Depression.;During the thirties, Lynchburg's leaders blended southern tradition with modernity in order to meet the needs of the municipality and its people while allowing the elite to maintain their control over the Hill City's government and preserve local autonomy. The study highlighted the evolving relationship between an expanded federal government and a Virginia locality that sought to cling to the past while pursuing aspects of modernity that would bring economic benefits.;Many of the struggles Lynchburg and its people endured are mirrored in the histories of other localities, but some of the differences are important to note. For example: the city's financial institutions avoided collapse; councilmen listened to and considered seriously the voices of the lower classes, although, no matter the constituency, economic factors usually prevailed over social considerations. Finally, despite tough times, the city remained solvent and honored its bonds when they came due, a feat that would have been impossible were it not for the availability of New Deal funds. While Washington's programs encouraged an entitlement mindset among the municipality's needy, the elite succumbed to a similar reliance on the federal government as evidenced by the quest to gain all they could for the Hill City from Washington. Without the New Deal's assistance it is clear that Lynchburg's people would have suffered at the hands of the municipality's well-intentioned leaders who held fiscal solvency as their highest goal.