Great Depression
The Great Depression was the worst economic downturn in the history of the industrialized world, lasting from 1929 to 1939. Explore every angle of the crisis and how it affected everyday Americans, from the stock market crash of 1929, to the Dust Bowl, to FDR’s response to the economic calamity—the New Deal.
Featured Overview
Featured Overview
Learn more about the 1930s, a particularly tumultuous decade in world history that got its start with a bang - or, more accurately, a crash.
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Illustration by Eduardo Ramón Trejo. Photos from Getty Images.
Featured Overview
Featured Overview
Learn more about the 1930s, a particularly tumultuous decade in world history that got its start with a bang - or, more accurately, a crash.
1:08m watch
Start Here
Start Here
By 1929, a perfect storm of unlucky factors led to the start of the worst economic downturn in U.S. history.
As they traveled west from the drought-ravaged Midwest, American-born migrants were viewed as disease-ridden intruders who would sponge off the government.
As Americans confronted a banking crisis, the Great Depression and then World War II, FDR talked to Americans through radio broadcasts.
The Hoover Dam, LaGuardia Airport and the Bay Bridge were all part of FDR's New Deal investment.
3 Pillars of FDR’s New Deal
3 Pillars of FDR’s New Deal
How Artists Helped End the Great Depression
How Artists Helped End the Great Depression
History Shorts: How Artists Helped End the Great Depression
By giving support to an army of creative workers, the government was able to lift the prospects of an entire nation.
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Explore All Related Topics
Explore All Related Topics
By giving support to an army of creative workers, the government was able to lift the prospects of an entire nation.
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Dorothea Lange captured the reality of the Great Depression in the faces of those who struggled most.
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Meant to exhibit the "World of Tomorrow," the 1939 World's Fair in New York City tried to predict what life would be like beyond the 20th century. "Elektro" is a perfect example - a humanoid robot who could enjoy a cigarette while cracking a joke.
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Explore how the Great Depression of the 1930s forced America to consider having a social safety net, leading President FDR to sign the Social Security Act into law via his New Deal programs. Learn how Social Security has changed over time.
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Learn more about the 1930s, a particularly tumultuous decade in world history that got its start with a bang - or, more accurately, a crash.
1:08m watch
Did you know that the Hoover Dam supplies electricity to more than 20 million people? Get all the facts on this marvel of engineering.
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Black Thursday brings the roaring twenties to a screaming halt, ushering in a world-wide an economic depression.
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See how Henry Kaiser's love for a young lady spurred him to build the Hoover Dam and the great military war ships.
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President Franklin Roosevelt creates a series of programs designed to help America cope with, and recover from the Great Depression.
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In the early 1930's, every spring in the Tennessee River Valley brought on an onslaught of rain which totaled six feet each year. Roosevelt created the Tennessee Valley Authority to fix the problem.
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How did President Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal get the American economy back on track, and which components still have a major impact on today's society?
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In the 1930s, families were driven out of the once fertile great plains by massive dust clouds.
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Elected in 1933, Franklin D. Roosevelt was a reassuring presence for many Americans through the trials of the Great Depression.
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Discover how one of the darkest economic times in American history helped the nation reinvent itself.
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