The Myth of the Great Depression

While most narratives of the Great Depression chronicle the pain and struggles of the common folk, this account takes a drastically different approach—telling stories of health and happiness in the 1930s. In Australia, as in most of the world, the Great Depression obliterated jobs, bank balances, and, by all accounts, optimism. When Potts interviewed Australians who remembered the period, however, he found that many spoke with surprising affection, recalling that it seemed “people were happie…