California on the Breadlines

An account of how Dorothea Lange, the Great Depression's most famous photographer, and Paul Taylor, her labor economist husband, forged a relationship that was private - they both divorced spouses to be together - collaborative, and richly productive. It blends biography, literature, and history to retrace the paths that brought them together.

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"California on the Breadlines" is the compelling account of how Dorothea Lange, the Great Depression's most famous photographer, and Paul Taylor, her labor economist husband, forged a relationship that was private - they both divorced spouses to be together - collaborative, and richly productive. Lange and Taylor poured their considerable energies into the decade-long project of documenting the plight of California's dispossessed, which in 1939 culminated in the publication of their landmark book, "American Exodus: A Record of Human Erosion". Jan Goggans blends biography, literature, and history to retrace the paths that brought Lange and Taylor together. She shows how American Exodus set forth a new way of understanding those in crisis during the economic disaster in California and ultimately informed the way we think about the Great Depression itself.