Virtual Book Display: The Great Depression

A brief overview of the Great Depression

During the Great Depression, many people from the midwest left for California

The WPA, a New Deal program, helped many people during the Great Depression get jobs

The unemployment drama playing out in the U.S. has drawn comparisons to the Great Depression, the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world. How do the two compare?

As the United States enters recession territory and investors say goodbye to an 11-year bull market, comparisons to the Great Depression—the worst economic downturn in American history—are inevitable, but how does that comparison actually stack up?

The global economy will contract by 3% this year as countries around the world shrink at the fastest pace in decades, the International Monetary Fund says.

In the 1930s, Americans responded to economic calamity by creating a richer and more equitable society. We can do it again.

Differences between American's reactions and attitudes to the Federal Government during the Great Depression and the 2010 midterms.

A look at the relationship between the Great Depression and American art.

Government indecision amid the coronavirus crisis has fuelled fears of a long recession – unless there is a huge fiscal response

The longest and deepest downturn in the history of the United States and the modern industrial economy lasted more than a decade, beginning in 1929 and ending during World War II in 1941.

On Black Monday, October 28, 1929, the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined nearly 13 percent. Federal Reserve leaders differed on how to respond to the event and support the financial system.

Recent events highlight the importance of examining the impact of economic downturns on population health. The Great Depression of the 1930s was the most important economic downturn in the U.S. in the twentieth century. The authors used historical life expectancy and mortality data to examine associations of economic growth with population health for the period 1920–1940.

Today’s downturn is comparable in scale to that of the 1930s, but it probably won’t be as damaging or long-lasting, economists say

The Great Depression was a revolutionary spark for all kinds of things — health insurance, social safety nets, big government — all of which were in response to a national crisis. Through the personal accounts of four people who lived during the Great Depression, we look back at what life was like back then and what those stories can teach us about the last time the U.S. went through a national economic cataclysm.

"On today's Planet Money, we hear the words of ordinary man — Benjamin Roth, a lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio — trying to come to grips with the Great Depression."

Part of a 7-part series about The Great Depression.

Two people discuss their experiences during The Great Depression.

"With the help of Pulitzer Prize-winners Doris Kearns Goodwin and David M. Kennedy, along with Allida Black, the Director of The Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Jon Meacham delivers a vivid and intimate look at a President who countered depression with action, and who conquered fear with hope."

"In The Great Depression Andrew Cole tells us about the period between 1929 and 1939. Whilst much of his talk is about the US he also tells us about the global context."

In 1931 the rains stopped and the “black blizzards” began. Powerful dust storms carrying millions of tons of stinging, blinding black dirt swept across the Southern Plains — the panhandles of Texas and Oklahoma, western Kansas, and the eastern portions of Colorado and New Mexico. One journalist traveling through the devastated region dubbed it the “Dust Bowl.” Surviving the Dust Bowl is the remarkable story of the determined people who clung to their homes and way of life, enduring drought, dust, disease — even death — for nearly a decade.

Explore important topics and moments in U.S. history through historical primary sources from the Library of Congress. Presented here are primary source material for the Great Depression and World War II.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt was an American politician who served as the 32nd president of the United States from 1933 until his death in 1945. He won a record four presidential elections and became a central figure in world events during the first half of the 20th century. Roosevelt directed the federal government during most of the Great Depression, implementing his New Deal domestic agenda in response to the worst economic crisis in U.S. history. Here is the website for his Presidential Library, where you can learn more about his life and access digital archives and collections.