Book 5: Honor and Humiliation, Strive and Succeed Summary and Analysis

Honor and Humiliation deals with the general fear created by the Great Depression. It begins with a series of shorter interviews illustrating the desperation of the times. Eileen Barth, a social worker in Chicago, must cope with fear after a caseworker is murdered by a desperate client. Ward James, a publisher, is fired for union activity and discovers he is ineligible for relief because his former employer has deemed him so. He must go through the humiliation of a relief interview and investigation to get his money.

This chapter includes one of the stranger interviews of the book. Stanley Kell represents a neighborhood in northern Chicago that is fighting to keep black families from moving in. He rails that he has had to scrape for every penny he has...