Washoe County Library System

"The Great Depression in the United States had wide-ranging effects on people of all walks of life"--

The story of two friends, raised in the same orphanage, whose loyalty is put to the ultimate test when they meet years later at a controversial institution—one as an employee; the other, an inmate. It’s 1927 and eighteen-year-old Mary Engle is hired to work as a secretary at a remote but scenic institution for mentally disabled women called the Nettleton State Village for Feebleminded Women of Childbearing Age. She’s immediately in awe of her...

Discusses the social and economic climate of the Great Depression as it related to the life and daily activities of children.

An in-depth look at the turbulent Prohibition era.

Ken Burns documents the worst man-made ecological disaster in American history, when a frenzied wheat boom on the southern Plains, followed by a decade-long drought during the 1930s, nearly swept away the breadbasket of the nation. Vivid interviews, dramatic photographs, and seldom-seen movie footage bring to life incredible stories of human suffering and perseverance. Includes bonus features.

On October 29, 1929, life in the United States took a turn for the worst. The stock market and#x2013; the system that controls money in America and#x2013; plunged to a record low. But this event was only the beginning of many bad years to come. By the early 1930s, one out of three people was not working. People lost their jobs, their houses, or both and ended up in shantytowns called "Hoovervilles" named for the president at the time of the crash....