| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.1

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.1 | The History Cooperative

Susan Currell. The March of Spare Time: The Problem and Promise of Leisure in the Great Depression. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2005. Pp. 235. $39.95.
Susan Currell has written a worthy book that focuses our attention on Depression-era debates among New Deal policy makers over what she identifies as "the problem of leisure." With the increase in unemployment that was both symptom and cause of the Great Depression, the question of what Americans would do with their increased free time loomed larger and larger among sociologists, economists, social reformers, and government officials. How could Americans be persuaded to spend their leisure time on wholesome recreational activities that would fortify body, mind, and spirit instead of on the mindless and debilitating products of commercial, mass culture?	1
The leisure problem was deemed of such importance that New Deal officials established the New York Committee on the Use of Leisure Time, in 1933, and, in succeeding years, designed and funded a wide variety of recreation programs through the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Works Progress Administration. Though puny in comparison with European programs of subsidized recreation and travel, U.S. government spending on recreation programs increased significantly during the 1930s.	. . .

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