This was a very interesting account of the effects of an economic depression on the rural inhabitants of western Wisconsin, specifically the town of Black River Falls, with photographs that really bring to life the people who lived and died during the 1890s. However, I feel that the books formats, arguments, and designs say almost as much about the study of the humanities during the 1970s as about the late nineteenth century. Lesy’s impetus behind the approach to history seen in the book seem to be very representative of the new philosophies such as postmodernism that began to effect the academic world by the ‘70s. In any case, I thought that Lesy did a very good job at evoking the everyday life, if rather sordid and bizarre, of the rural populace of America. I especially felt the mixture of actual documents and photographs brought a unique view of history, brought even closer to home as I read the book in the town of Winona, Minnesota just across the river from the area of Wisconsin the book details.