Will ’20s be ’30s? Narrative Journalism and Lessons From the Great Depression

Despite a roaring market, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects there will be fewer jobs for the bottom 40 percent of workers in the lowest paying jobs by 2029. The top quintile? Boom times. Over half of Americans are now living in what for them is essentially a Great Depression. This kind of economic disparity is gasoline for hate movements in any era and place on earth. If the cliché of the past being prologue holds true, knowledge of the 1930s may prepare us for what’s next, especially in the critical years between now and the elections of 2022 and 2024.