Last updated on November 5th, 2023 at 08:59 pm
The Great Depression was not merely a financial crisis but a seismic global event that reshaped the 20th century. Beginning with the infamous stock market crash of 1929 and stretching throughout the 1930s, this period saw the world stagger under unparalleled economic hardship.
Defining the Great Depression solely by the financial panic that gripped the world is to ignore the broader human story.
Millions were forced to confront the stark realities of hunger, unemployment, and unprecedented social upheaval, from the dusty despair of the American Dust Bowl to the rise of shantytowns or “Hoovervilles.”
Civilian Conservation Corps members repair a truck in Yosemite.
A bank run, 1933.
Kids line up for free soup and bread
Homeless man sleeps by the docks, 1935.
A soup line ran by Al Capone.
The homeless sit outside of their huts in Manhattan, NY.
A poor family during The Great Depression
Handing out food packages to the needy in New York City
Salvation Army soup kitchen
Sharecroppers
A family of migrants say grace before lunch.
