Special Features
- Map, static: Railroad Maps
- General Article: Added Obstacles for African Americans
- Teacher's Resources: Teacher's Guide
- Timeline: Timeline of the Great Depression
- Further Reading: Related Books and Websites
- General Article: Striking a Chord: Railroads and Their Musical Heritage
At the height of the Great Depression, more than a quarter million teenagers were living on the road in America, many criss-crossing the country by illegally hopping freight trains. This film tells the story of ten of these teenage hobos -- from the reasons they left home to what they experienced -- all within the context of depression-era America.
My American Experience
Share Your Story
What do the 1930s mean to you? We invite you to tell us your own stories — whether you lived through the tumultuous decade or learned about it from a relative, a book or a movie. Comment on the decade as a whole, or on any of our 1930s film subjects.
Coney Island
The internationally famous carnival of delights in New York was the birthplace of the hot dog and the roller coaster.
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Telegrams from the Dead
A new religion called spiritualism affected the nation in the era of Abraham Lincoln, P. T. Barnum and Frederick Douglass.
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The Great Famine
The American effort to relieve starvation in Soviet Russia in 1921 during the worst natural disaster in Europe in 500 years.
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G-Men - The Rise of J. Edgar Hoover
Of all the alphabet agencies of the New Deal, none captured the public's imagination like J. Edgar Hoover's FBI.
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Eugene O'Neill
A great playwright's turbulent story, from childhood through the years of his Nobel Prize-winning career to his lonely, painful death.
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Do You Mean There Are Still Real Cowboys?
A year in the life of Wyoming cowboys and the ranching families of the American West.
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Roberto Clemente
Clemente was an exceptional baseball player whose career sheds light on larger issues of immigration, civil rights and cultural change.
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