Memory v. history

We're fortunate, in these hard economic times, to have with us many people whose life experience extends back to the Great Depression. There is a crucial difference between memory and history. History tends to repeat itself, not because we are incapable of learning from the past, but because the job of learning is much harder when it must come from the dry pages of recorded events. Learning from the people who have "been there and done that" works a lot better. For example, to understand the prevailing economic theories and conditions that led to the collapse of the world economy 80 years ago, you might turn to history. To learn how to eat cheap while patching together a living, a living memory is what you need.


This summer, NCPR is putting modern North Country teens together with people who were teens during the Depression in a project called Common Wealth, Common Wisdom. Working together, teens and elders will pool their experiences of hard times, using audio, video, pictures and text, sharing the results with the NCPR and audience and the world through broadcast, webcast and social media. We welcome back former NCPR reporter and founding All Before Five host, Gregory Warner, who ramrods the project along with radio producer Laura Starecheski, now a professor at the City University of New York. Please check out the project on the NCPR website.