The 1930s (pronounced “nineteen-thirties” and commonly abbreviated as “the 30s”) was a decade that began on January 1, 1930, and ended on December 31, 1939.
The decade was defined by a global economic and political crisis that culminated in the Second World War. It saw the collapse of the international financial system, beginning with the Wall Street Crash of 1929, the largest stock market crash in American history. The subsequent economic downfall, called the Great Depression, had traumatic social effects worldwide, leading to widespread poverty and unemployment, especially in the economic superpower of the United States and in Germany, which was already struggling with the payment of reparations for the First World War. The Dust Bowl in the United States (which led to the nickname the “Dirty Thirties”) exacerbated the scarcity of wealth. U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt, elected in 1933, introduced a program of broad-scale social reforms and stimulus plans called the New Deal in response to the crisis.
In the wake of the Depression, the decade also saw the rapid retreat of liberal democracy as authoritarian regimes emerged in countries across Europe and South America, including Italy, Spain, and in particular Nazi Germany. With the rise of Adolf Hitler, Germany undertook a series of annexations and aggressions against neighboring territories in Central Europe, and imposed a series of laws which discriminated against Jews and other ethnic minorities. Weaker states such as Ethiopia, China, and Poland were invaded by expansionist world powers, with the last of these attacks leading to the outbreak of World War II on September 1, 1939, despite calls from the League of Nations for worldwide peace. World War II helped end the Great Depression when governments spent money for the war effort. The 1930s also saw many important developments in science and a proliferation of new technologies, especially in the fields of intercontinental aviation, radio, and film. (Wikipedia)
Girls on a train car, Oakland, California, 1930s.Y1B-17s over NYC, 1938.Lesbian couple at Le Monocle, Paris, 1932.Charlie Chaplin in Biarritz, France 1931.Telephone Workers in Chillicothe, Ohio, 1939.Hotel Excelsior, Berlin, 1930.Car hops, Los Angeles, 1937.Walcot Street, Bath, England, 1934.Children riding on horse and cart, 1936.Fashionable ladies in wide-legged pants at beach, 1930s.The Hindenburg takes shape, 1932.Behind-the-scenes of ‘Our Gang’, 1930.Evolution of the swimsuit: scantier and scantier. From left are suits from 1932, 1890, 1900, 1910 and 1920.An itinerant cowpuncher travels with his wife and dog in Alpine, Texas, 1938.Queens of the World, 1930s.Keeping cool in West Philadelphia, 1936.Black Tuesday, smoke and smog block out the midday sun in St. Louis, 1939.Young woman in a bathing suit with western costume accessories conducting traffic at the Redondo Beach, California, 1936.Rainy day, Broadway, Los Angeles, 1938.Reclining girl, France, 1930s.Man tops out the Federal Courthouse (in front of the City Hall tower), Los Angeles, 1938.The wedding of Cyril Ritchard and Madge Elliott, St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney, 1935.A 23-year-old Frank, in 1938, flawlessly perfecting the bathroom selfie with just cool style and a coy smile.Young John F. Kennedy with his dog Dunker during his tour of Europe in the Hague in the Netherlands, August 1937.Prison break camouflage, 1933.Renée Perle, Jacques-Henri Lartigue’s fabulous muse in Paris, 1931Motorbike patrolman and young girls, 1930.A six-year-old Anne Frank off to jump rope with her friend, Sanne Ledermann, Amsterdam, 1935 — both girls would later lose their lives in Nazi concentration camps.Women greeting a Pan Am Flight, Texas, 1939.Cycling next to the harbor, 1930s.HM King George and Queen Elizabeth in the Senate Chamber giving Royal Assent to bills during the Royal Tour in Ottawa, May 1939.Hiking in Canungra, Queensland, 1936.Silvercup Breadmen, New York City, 1938.Street scene in Palermo, Italy, 1930.Grasshoppers swarm a downtown Colorado Springs, Colorado, storefront in early summer 1937.New York Grand Central Station, 1935.Three guys standing in front of a Chrysler, 1939.Basket Jim does his thing in Covent Garden, London in 1930. Back in the days when Covent Garden was a fruit and veg market.A youthful Ken Murray and some of the Paramount girls, Malibu, 1931.Shucking oysters, New Jersey, 1938.Girl in mid-air backflip, Bondi Beach, Sydney, 1937.Directing the traffic at St. Margaret’s-at-Cliffe, Kent, England, 1930.Bronx gunslinger, NYC, 1939.Men at work in precarious positions, during the cleaning of Justice over the Old Bailey Courts of Justice, London, 1933.Girls from Seattle, Washington, 1934.Innocent beauty, 1932.A couple overlooks the Colorado Street Bridge, located over the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena, California, 1939.A Zeppelin flying above the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt, 1931.Young women in swimsuits with their bicycles, 1930s.Hindenburg at the U.S. Navy hangar, Lakehurst, New Jersey, 1936.
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