The Great Depression

The United States spent the 1930s in the midst of the Great Depression. This global economic recession was the worst depression in American history. Thousands of banks closed, leaving their customers with lost savings. Unemployment jumped dramatically, from just less than four percent in 1929 when the depression began; it reached its height in 1933, when about twenty-five percent of the U.S. population was out of work. By the late 1930s, many families had begun to feel some economic relief, but the depression did not end until the United States entered World War II in 1941.

Popular Culture in the 1930s

Americans turned to the movies as a way of forgetting their problems during the Great Depression. Gone With the Wind, based on a novel by Margaret Mitchell, became the most popular film of the decade. Comedies and musicals were also popular. However, some filmmakers illustrated social...