The Great Depression was the worst and deepest peacetime economic shock in the history of the industrialized world. It brought about profound social change and was a significant factor in the drift towards the Second World War.
The depth of suffering during the Depression years is hard for many of us to imagine today. More than 1 in five children in the city were suffering from malnutrition by 1932, and the Great Depression was only getting going at that point, it lasted seven more years.
So, why did events on Wall Street in 1929 reverberate around the world? Why did the depression last so long, and how did America and the rest of the world eventually dig themselves out of this financial hole?