ABSTRACT
HOW MUCH DO WE KNOW about the effects of unemployment? There are some statistics available on the extent of unemployment and the amount of relief provided; occasionally these data are given in some detail by age, sex, occupation, and local conditions. There is also a literature on social problems: newspapermen and other writers have most effectively portrayed the life of the unemployed, bringing home their condition through example and description to those as yet unaffected. But there is a gap between the bare figures of official statistics and the literary accounts, open as they invariably are to all kinds of accidental impressions. The purpose of our study of the Austrian village, Marienthal, is to bridge this gap.
