"The Great Depression, that restless decade of the 1930s, is known to most Americans today through familiar images of the rural South, of migrant workers, sharecroppers, and dust-bowl small holdings. Now, a new view of the period has come to light in the photographs of John Gutmann, who focused mainly on cities and captured there a vitality and energy--what he calls the 'extravagance of life'--that persisted even in the depth of the Depression."--Jacket.