What to Read on the Great Depression

The Great Depression was the most dramatic economic episode of the twentieth century, resulting in widespread economic hardship, dramatic political change, and arguably World War II. There is still debate over why what looked in 1929-30 to be a common enough cyclical downturn became a major catastrophe. And in some respects, the global financial crisis of 1931 resembled the current financial crisis, with banks and other financial institutions becoming extremely reluctant to lend with any risk. Not surprisingly, the 1930s have attracted much scholarly attention, with the following books providing excellent examinations of this troubled period.

Economic Survey, 1919-1939. By W. Arthur Lewis. Routledge, 1949.
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There is still probably no better brief treatment of the global reach of the Great Depression than Chapter 4 of this book by W. Arthur Lewis, who later won a Nobel Prize for his work on economic development. Written shortly after World War II, the volume describes the depression's antecedents in the 1920s and the responses to the crisis in the United States as well as in Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the Soviet Union.

The Great Crash of 1929. By John Kenneth Galbraith. Mariner Books, 1997.  
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