The politics of Little House

Having grown up with the Little House books, I found Christine Woodside's essay on their anti-New Deal ideology completely fascinating: 

For a decade already [Rose Wilder] Lane had milked various snippets from her parents’ lives for short stories. Now she saw an opportunity for her mother [Laura Ingalls Wilder]. Pioneer struggles could eerily mirror the struggles of the Great Depression, and Lane thought Americans were ready to hear about covered-wagon childhoods. After magazines rejected Wilder’s real-life account, Lane began reworking some of the memoir into what would become the first children’s book, “Little House in the Big Woods.”

Published in 1932 by Harper & Brothers, the book was praised by book critics for its honesty and caught the interest of readers nationwide. The Junior Literary Guild, a national book club, paid them an additional fee to print its own run. The income crisis at the Wilders’ ended. In the shadow of the crash, tales of overcoming great adversity resonated, and the editors wanted more.