I read Thomas Wolfe’s You Can’t Go Home Again during the summer and while the book serves as a treatise against nostalgia, the passages about the Great Depression were to me the most haunting. The land grabs, the greed of investors, the neighbor turning against neighbor for the almighty dollar all that preceded the worldwide economic downturn which started in 1929 and lasting through most of the 1930s, is too reminiscent of what I came home to from Eastern Europe.
Like the 30s, the great depression centered in North America and Europe, but had damaging effects around the world. The most industrialized countries were affected the worst, including the United States, Germany, Britain, France, Canada, and Australia. Cities around the world were hit hard, especially those based on heavy industry. Sound familiar? Look at today’s headlines:
NYT – Wall St.’s Turmoil Sends Stocks Reeling