Economic history · The United States
1929 to 1939, in seven parts. The crash that was not the cause, nine thousand banks, the promise about gold that every country broke, what it did to the people who lived through it, and what actually ended it.
7 modules · about 70 minutes
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1 The Boom and the Fall August 1929 to 1933. The economy had already turned down two months before the crash people remember. The free module, and the question the rest of the series answers. 6 steps · 9 min · Free Done 2 The Banks Go 1930 to March 1933. Nine thousand banks stopped trading, a queue at one bank emptied the next, and the money in America shrank by a third. 7 steps · 10 min · Free Done 3 Golden Fetters 1925 to 1936. Every country promised to swap its money for gold at a fixed price, and the promise is what spread the fall. The ones that broke it first recovered first. 6 steps · 9 min · Free Done 4 Britain Leaves, the World Stops Trading September 1931 to 1932. Britain broke the gold promise first and recovered first, then gave up free trade for the first time in a century. World trade fell by a third. 7 steps · 10 min · Free Done 5 Who Paid For It 1929 to 1945. Pay and hours fell as well as jobs, the damage lasted a decade, and nothing measured any of it at the time. 8 steps · 12 min · Free Done 6 The Hundred Days March 1933 onwards. What Roosevelt did first, what he built that is still standing, what the Supreme Court struck down, and the law he passed because he was frightened. 7 steps · 10 min · Free Done 7 What Actually Ended It 1933 to 1942. Recovery began six years before the war, broke in 1937, and was never finished. Five respectable answers to what ended it, and the Federal Reserve holds two of them. 7 steps · 10 min · Free DoneCountry data from the World Bank (CC BY 4.0) and the UNDP Human Development Report (CC BY 3.0 IGO)
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