" It was the time of the Oxford Pledge and the movement against Fascism; his temptation to go to Spain as a member of the Lincoln Brigade . . . 'I was an ideal recruit, alone, on the run, searching for something'; a serious affair with a schoolteacher, running away . . . 'This is part of the Depression. You lived in a fear of responsibility for another person. You backed off when someone got close.' . . . I was born out of the Depression. I gave up my illusions. No more Horatio Alger Jr. I had a few bad hours, a few bad years. But I found excitement. It was an awakening. "

― Studs Terkel , Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression