The Great Depression, 1929-1940
Electronic Books
Encyclopedia of the Great Depression This link opens in a new window
Publication Date: 2004This 2-vol. set encompasses nearly two decades of American history, beginning with the farm crisis of the mid-1920s, through the 1929 stock market crash, the gradual recovery during the 1930s with Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and World War II. This wide-ranging, multidisciplinary encyclopedia features entries on depression-era politics, government, business, economics, literature, the arts, society and culture.
The Great Depression of The 1930sPublication Date: 2013Understanding the Great Depression has never been more relevant than in today's economic crisis. This edited collection provides an authoritative introduction to the Great Depression as it affected the advanced countries in the 1930s.
Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression This link opens in a new windowPublication Date: 1970Politicians, businessmen, artists and writers, racketeers, speakeasy operators, strikers, impoverished farmers, children, and many others tell their personal stories about the Great Depression.
Quick Reference
- Great Depression This link opens in a new windowfrom Gale Encyclopedia of U.S. Economic History
This entry provides a good overview of the economic effects of The Great Depression. - New Deal This link opens in a new windowfrom Jim Crow: A Historical Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic
Suggested Databases
- Academic Search Ultimate - EBSCO This link opens in a new windowAcademic Search Ultimate is a multidisciplinary database that offers an unprecedented collection of peer-reviewed, full-text journals, including many journals indexed in leading citation indexes. Contains over 10,000 full-text journals and magazines as well as over 9,000 full-text peer-reviews journals.
- New York Times (Historical) - ProQuest This link opens in a new windowDigitized articles from the New York Times from 1851 - 2014.
- U.S. History In Context - Gale This link opens in a new windowIncludes more than 5,000 primary source documents, full-text articles drawn from top periodicals and newspapers, thousands of images, videos, and audio selections.
Websites
- How Photography Defined the Great Depression This link opens in a new windowTo justify the need for New Deal projects, the government employed photographers to document the suffering of those affected, producing some of the most iconic photographs of the Great Depression.
- The Lessons of the Great Depression This link opens in a new windowFrom The Atlantic Magazine (May 17, 2020)
In the 1930s, Americans responded to economic calamity by creating a richer and more equitable society. We can do it again. - The New Deal Wasn’t What You Think This link opens in a new windowFrom The Atlantic Magazine (March 6, 2019)
If we are going to fund a Green New Deal, we need to acknowledge how the original actually worked.
Example Sources
- Art and the Great Depression - National Gallery of Art This link opens in a new windowIn 1935, Roosevelt created the Federal Art Project (FAP) as the agency that would administer artist employment projects, federal art commissions, and community art centers. Roosevelt saw the arts and access to them as fundamental to American life and democracy. He believed the arts fostered resilience and pride in American culture and history. There were no government-mandated requirements about the subject of the art or its style. The expectation was that the art would relate to the times, reflect the place in which it was created, and be accessible to a broad public. The art created under the WPA offers a unique snapshot of the country, its people, and art practices of the period.
- WPA Posters (Library of Congress) This link opens in a new windowThis collection of WPA Posters from the Library of Congress offers full color digitized images from the 1930s and 1940s. Seven sections are examined: Health and Safety; Cultural Programs; Travel and Tourism; Educational Programs; Community Activities; Federal Project Number One; and World War II.