The Great Depression was the worst and deepest peacetime economic shock of the twentieth century. It affected millions of lives, redefined global trade, and contributed to the drift towards the Second World War.But how were the seeds of this financial disaster sown in the First World War? What was the cost to ordinary people? And how did America and the wider world dig itself out of its financial hole?

This is a Short History of the Great Depression.

Written by Dan Smith. With thanks to John Moser, author and chair of the Department of History and Political Science at Ashland University.

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