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Great Depression (1929-1939)

During the Great Depression, a bunch of people got really depressed and bummed around because they were bummed out. Then the people who still had houses to live in got bummed out because the bumming bums started bumming on their doorsteps, and things went from bad to worse until everyone was depressed and bummed out.

The source of their depression? Money.

What else? Not only is the love of money the root of all kinds of evil, it's also a sure barometer of health and happiness. Where money abounds, so does joy and laughter; where money is absent, sadness and its darker corollaries are certainly not. So it was in the Great Depression—the money was flowing, everyone was happy, then suddenly the waterfall of Benjamins was cut short and everyone found themselves down in the dumps (sometimes literally, looking for food).

The origins of the Great Depression (which was a worldwide event, not just a U. S. phenomenon) are not entirely clear. It lasted from 1929 through most of the '30s, and as much as it pains Austrian school economists, it was probably ended when the world powers got together for a big fight known as World War II. It may have begun with the Black Tuesday stock market crash of 1929, but it was certainly augmented by the Dust Bowl across the American South and Southwest.

Some thought the Depression was punishment for the moral anarchy of the 1920s. While there was plenty of dissipation in the Roaring '20s, there's no evidence that the moral squalor led directly or indirectly to the economic collapse of nations across the globe. And anyway, the following decades weren't much better on that score, so the theory's pretty shallow.

In all seriousness, the Great Depression was a period of great deprivation and sorrow. Unemployment soared, production plummeted, and there was starvation where recently there'd been plenty. The seemingly indestructible economies of the West were proved less than stable, and everyone got a little weak in the knees when they thought about the future.

It's never a good idea to use history purely for moralistic purposes, but this financial disaster does present an important lesson—peace and prosperity are never ensured, and there is no salvific power in money or wealth. In the Gilded Age, shortly before the Depression set in, people looked to material things for protection from all manner of evil. But looking to anything or anyone but God for protection is futile and destructive.

Are there things we can learn from this tragic period that relate to our own situation? Absolutely, though we'll leave others to figure out exactly what those are. We'd only encourage you to look at events like this from an eternal perspective rather than a man-centered one, because anthropocentric attitudes are precisely the kind that give way to this kind of social dissolution.

Review by C. Hollis Crossman
C. Hollis Crossman used to be a child. Now he is a husband and father, teaches adult Sunday school in his Presbyterian congregation, and likes weird stuff. He might be a mythical creature, but he's definitely not a centaur.Read more of his reviews here.

 

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Al Capone Does My Shirts
by Gennifer Choldenko
Reprint from Puffin Books
for 7th-10th grade
2005 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$8.99
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by Michael Golay
from Free Press
for Adult
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for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
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from Viking Press
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Boys in the Boat adapted for Young Readers
by Daniel James Brown, adapted by Gregory Mone
from Penguin Putnam
for 6th-9th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$17.99
Boys in the Boat adapted for Young Readers
by Daniel James Brown, adapted by Gregory Mone
from Penguin Putnam
for 6th-9th grade
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$11.99 $6.00 (1 in stock)
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from Clarion Books
for 1st-3rd grade
in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
Bud, Not Buddy
by Christopher Paul Curtis
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Realistic Fiction for 4th-6th grade
2000 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
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from Delacorte Press
Realistic Fiction for 4th-6th grade
2000 Newbery Medal winner
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Realistic Fiction for 4th-6th grade
2000 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
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Child Star
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in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Children of the Dust Bowl
by Jerry Stanley
from Crown Publishers
for 2nd-5th grade
1993 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
$10.99
Children of the Great Depression
by Russell Freedman
from Sandpiper Books
for 4th-6th grade
2006 NCTE Orbis Pictus Award
in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
$11.99
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from University of Nebraska
Biography for 5th-9th grade
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in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
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Perspectives on History Series
by David C. King, ed.
from History Compass
Historical Non-fiction for 6th-9th grade
in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
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Cadmus Edition from E.M. Hale and Company
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Unknown from Scholastic Inc.
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Young Oxford History of Women in the United States Volume 8
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by Kerry A. Graves, consultant Jonathan J. Bean
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for 9th-Adult
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by John Steinbeck, illustrated by James Hays
from Reader's Digest
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Grapes of Wrath
by John Steinbeck
3rd printing from Viking Press
for 9th-Adult
in Vintage Fiction & Literature (Location: VIN-FIC)
Grapes of Wrath
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from Penguin Books
for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$21.00
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from Mariner Books
for 10th-Adult
in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
$16.99
Great Depression
Perspectives on History Series
by Janet Beyer & JoAnne B. Weisman, editors
from History Compass
Non-fiction for 6th-9th grade
in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
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American History Reference for 11th-Adult
in American History Reference (Location: HISA-REF)
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3rd Revised Edition from Oxford University
American History Reference for 5th-9th grade
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American History Series
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from Sterling Publishing Co.
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1934 Newbery Honor Book
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2007 Revised from Bonanza Publishing
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from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale
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from Random House
for 6th-9th grade
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No Promises in the Wind
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Historical Fiction for 6th-9th grade
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from Scholastic Inc.
Realistic Fiction for 6th-8th grade
1998 Newbery Medal winner
in Historical Fiction (Location: FIC-HIF)
$8.99 $5.00 (1 in stock)
Out of the Dust
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1st edition from Scholastic Inc.
Realistic Fiction for 6th-8th grade
1998 Newbery Medal winner
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1st edition from Blackbirch Press
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R My Name is Rachel
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Perspectives on History Series
by David C. King, editor
from History Compass
Historical Non-fiction for 6th-9th grade
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Rose's Journal
by Marissa Moss
from Houghton Mifflin
for 4th-6th grade
in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
$4.00 (1 in stock)
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Story of Franklin D. Roosevelt
Grosset & Dunlap Signature #39
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from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
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Grosset & Dunlap Signature #50
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from Grosset & Dunlap
Biography for 5th-9th grade
in Grosset & Dunlap Signature Books (Location: VIN-SIG)
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Cornerstones of Freedom
by R. Conrad Stein
from Children's Press
for 4th-6th Grade
in Cornerstones of Freedom (Location: VIN-CORN)
Story of the Great Depression
Cornerstones of Freedom
by R. Conrad Stein
from Children's Press
for 4th-6th Grade
in Cornerstones of Freedom (Location: VIN-CORN)
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from Children's Press
for 4th-6th grade
in Cornerstones of Freedom (Location: VIN-CORN)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
Story of the Roaring Twenties
Cornerstones of Freedom series
by R. Conrad Stein
from Scholastic Inc.
Non-fiction for 4th-6th grade
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Thimble Summer
by Elizabeth Enright
from Square Fish Publishing
Realistic Fiction for 4th-6th grade
1939 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99 $5.00 (3 in stock)
Thimble Summer
by Elizabeth Enright
from Yearling
Realistic Fiction for 4th-6th grade
1939 Newbery Medal winner
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$4.50 (1 in stock)
Time Travelers: Industrial Revolution - CD-ROM
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from Home School in the Woods
for 3rd-8th grade
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To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
from Warner Books
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$5.00 (1 in stock)
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
from Harper Perennial
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee
35 Anv from HarperTrophy
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
1961 Pulitzer Prize winner
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
$26.99
To Kill a Mockingbird
by Harper Lee, illustrated by David Johnson
from Reader's Digest
Realistic Fiction for 9th-Adult
Pulitzer Prize Winner
in 20th & 21st Century Literature (Location: LIT7-20)
Turtle in Paradise
by Jennifer L. Holm
from Yearling
for 3rd-6th grade
2011 Newbery Honor Book
in Realistic Fiction (Location: FIC-REA)
$7.99
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A Basic History of the United States Volume 5
by Clarence B. Carson
from American Textbook Committee
American History Reference for 9th-Adult
in Basic History of the United States (Location: HISCUR-BHUS)
$19.00
What Was the Great Depression?
What Was?
1st edition from Grosset & Dunlap
in Great Depression (1929-1939) (Location: HISA-20GD)
$5.99 $3.00 (2 in stock)
When Grandpa Wore Knickers
by Fern Brown & Andree Vilas Grabe, illustrated by Joe Lasker
from Albert Whitman & Company
for 2nd-4th grade
in Vintage Nonfiction (Location: VIN-NFIC)
Who Was Franklin Roosevelt?
Who Was?...Series
by Margaret Frith, illustrated by John O'Brien
from Grosset & Dunlap
for 3rd-5th grade
in Who Was? biographies (Location: BIO-WHO)
Woodie Guthrie
by Bonnie Christensen
from Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
for 1st-4th grade
in Biographies (Location: BIO)
$6.00 (1 in stock)
Worst Hard Time
by Timothy Egan
from Houghton Mifflin
for 9th-Adult
in History for Adults (Location: ADU-HIS)
$6.00 (2 in stock)
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