A Young Girl in the Great Depression

It is not often that the diary of a 13-year-old will contain material of lasting interest. We cannot expect thoughtful reflection at such a young age, nor would we expect someone of that age to make a reliable observer of the events and people around her. Yet that is what young Betty Appenheimer has given us in her diary: a concise enumeration of each day’s events and activities, consistently maintained over a period of three years, from 1934 through 1936. The range of these events, as well as the number of persons mentioned, is surprisingly large. Taken as a whole, her diary provides us with a compelling record of a Midwestern farm near the geographic center of the country, during the height of the Great Depression.