Depression-WW2 color photos

[AtomicLabMonkey]

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/fsachtml/fsowhome.html

I don't know if anyone here has seen this link yet, but the Library of Congress has some amazing color photos of the Depression-WW2 era up online. You can even download the huge uncompressed TIFF files. It really brings home the realism when pictures are in color, far more so than black & white can ever do (for me at least). There are lots of pictures of the industries & workers of the era.. they look just like us for the most part. I know that shouldn't seem surprising but it is for some reason.

This is one of my favorites so far - reminds me of my grandpappy.

[sperry]

Originally Posted by AtomicLabMonkey

There are lots of pictures of the industries & workers of the era.. they look just like us for the most part. I know that shouldn't seem surprising but it is for some reason.

That's something that always seems hard for us younger people to remember... all those old people around us are just like us, just older. Society really hasn't changed all that much in the last 100 years... hell it probably hasn't changed fundamentally in the last 2000 years.

And that's what always blows me away when I think about WWII... those people, kids really, that went off to fight in the worst conflict the modern world's ever seen are just like you and me. 'Cept where we concern ourselves with video games, junk food, and pop singers, they were worried about sugar rations, bombing raids, and plain old staying alive. It makes me wonder if true strife is necessary in order for a generation to achive greatness. Right now I'd say our generation is full of politically correct pansies, doomed to allow American society to fail... whereas our grandparent's generation were tested with true hardship (depression, two world wars) and went on to gain the values necessary to make our country into a superpower in the 1950's.

It's truely a shame that most people today don't bother to learn and appreciate the terrible tragedy that our grandparents survived. "Those that forget history are doomed to repeat it." Are our children doomed to re-live WWII because our generation is too wrapped up in our own bullshit?