Elder Jr. presents the first longitudinal study of the Depression and how people were able to survive it. He follows 167 individuals born between the years 1920–1921 from their elementary school days in Oakland, California, throughout the 1960s. He does by using a combined historical, social, and psychological approach. Elder argues about the influence of the economic crisis on the life course of his subjects over two generations. By following young children in a crucial time during their childhood he views on how the government does not only affect adult, but the children are just as affected.
