Using the Coen Brother's movie as a secondary source for GCSE history Paper 2 - Depression era America.

1. Using a movie as a secondary source.

2.  The reach of radio was enormous.
 Mass communication and entertainment
could reach Americans within their own
homes, and capitalized on by business
advertisers, artists, and politicians.
 In the “O Brother” radio serves as a major plot
driver. One politician character references its
importance as a tool for “mass
communicating.”

3.  The Depression fueled bank robbery and
criminals like Bonnie and Clyde, whose
stories excited the public.
 Bank robber Lester Gillis, famously known as
George “Baby Face” Nelson committed crimes
back in the early 1930s.
 He was gunned down on November 28, 1934.
He was known to be hot tempered over the
“Baby Face” nickname.

4.  Huey Long is the greatest example in
American history, rising through radio and
the desperation of people in the Great
Depression.
 W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel also gained fame as a
radio personality with his bluegrass band the
Hillbilly Boys.

5.  The KKK rally in the film is meant to be both
sinister and absurd.
 The racist sentiments expressed by the red-
robed wizard, who is actually the political
gubernatorial candidate, are true to KKK
doctrine.
 The sacredness of the Confederate flag and the
lynching of an innocent black man (here Johnson)
are also accurate to say of a KKK rally or meeting
in 1937 Mississippi.

6.  Overall, “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” is a
flawed source to use for the past, however,
the film goes far beyond what the filmmakers
claim.
 The Coens’ film does a commendable job at
creating an accurate setting and image of the
diverse Great Depression society in the
American South.