Dorothea LangePoor mother and children, Oklahoma, 1936

Poor mother and children during the Great Depression. Elm Grove, Oklahoma County, Oklahoma, USA.Gordon and many others have pointed out that Lange's documentary photography was, to a large extent, portrait photography.  She treated the poor with as much respect as she had her rich clients, during her years as a successful portrait photographer in San Francisco.  And she found the beauty in them, just as she had with the rich.

This photo forces us to remember that people retain their full humanity, even in the midst of misery.  We need to see both of these photos (and to remember the father's tender gesture of washing his child's face) before we can even begin to understand this young mother and her children.

Dorothea Lange (1895-1965) has been called America's greatest documentary photographer. She is best known for her chronicles of the Great Depression and for her photographs of migratory farm workers. Below are 42 pre-World War II photographs she created for the U.S. Farm Security Administration (FSA) investigating living conditions of farm workers and their families in Western states such as California. Most of the workers had come west to escape the Dust Bowl, the lengthy drought which devastated millions of acres of farmland in Midwestern states such as Oklahoma.

WWI: Italy

In the years that led up to World War One, Italy had sided with Germany and Hungary in the Triple Alliance. Italy should have joined in the sides of these two nations when war broke out in August 1914. Italy's experience in World War One was disastrous and ended with the insult of a reward at the Versailles Settlement in 1919. What Italy did was wait and see how the war progressed. On April 26th 1915, Itally came into the war on the side of Britain, France and Russia. Many socialists had supported the government ‘s stand in keeping Italy out of the war in 1914. The nationalists, however, were horrified. To start with, Mussolini was against the war.

In 1915, Italy had signed the secret Treaty of London. In this treaty Britain had offered Italy large sections of territory in the Adriatic Sea region. Such an offer was too tempting for Italy to refuse. Britain and France wanted Italy to join in on their side so that a new front could open up t the south of the Western Front. The plan was to split still further the Central Powers so that its power on the Western and Eastern Fronts was weakened. The part Italy had to play in it required military success. This was never forthcoming. Between 1915 and 1917, Italian troops only got 10 miles inside Austrian territory. But in October 1917 came the disaster of Caporetto. In this battle, in fact a series of battles, the Italians had to fight the whole Austrian Army and 7 divisions of German troops. The Italian Army lost 300,000 men. Though the Italians had a victory at Vittorio Veneto in 1918, the psychological impact of Caporetto was huge. The retreat brought shame and humiliation to Italy.

By the end of the war in 1918, 600,000 Italians were dead, 950,000 were wounded and 250,000 were crippled for life. The war cost more than the government had spent in the previous 50 years – and Italy had only been in the war three years. By 1918, the country was hit by very high inflation and unemployment was high. But at least Italy had been on the winning side and could expect just rewards at Versailles. The Italians did not get what they felt had been promised at the Treaty of London and that caused resentment especially at the losses Italy had endured fighting for the Allies. The government came over as weak and lacking pride in Italy. For nationalists, the failure of the government to stand up to the "Big Three" at Versailles was unforgivable.