The History Channel's miniseries The Great Depression is over a decade old, but boy oh boy is it timely these days, hmm? With commentators, journalists, and politicians invoking Hoover, FDR, and the New Deal at analogous moments in our current economic freefall, it's probably not a bad time to brush up on the crisis that defined a generation; as we all know, those that don't learn their history are doomed to repeat it.

History's series, hosted and narrated by former New York governor Mario Cuomo, covers the Depression in four parts, each about forty-five minutes long. The series is assembled thematically rather than strictly chronologically, utilizing newsreel footage and photographs along with new interviews with historians, authors, politicians, historians, economists, and regular citizens.

The first episode, "The Great Shake-up," lays out the beginning of the Depression, covering the inaction of Hoover, the stock market crash, and the rise of FDR, along with such tangential side stories as the popularity of marathon dancing and the particulars of hobo culture. Upton Sinclair's run for the governor of California is covered in great detail, as is the launch of the New Deal via the CCC and the WPA.

The second episode, "Face the Music," focuses on culture and media in the Depression--movies, radio, photography, and journalism. Stars of the era, such as Kitty Carlisle and Gloria Stuart, are interviewed as we revisit the golden age of the studio system, Mae West and the implementation of the production code, and the double-features at movie palaces, which offered American citizens an air-conditioned escape for pennies. The phenomenon of radio is examined in detail, as are the photographs of Dorothea Lange, which "put a human face on grim statistics." Also of interest is the beginning of radio journalism (with events like the Hindenburg disaster and the fall of Austria), and how its conventions were exploited by Orson Welles and his famous "War of the Worlds" broadcast.

Episode three, "Striking Back," deals with America's internal conflicts--crime, race, and labor. Pretty Boy Floyd's Robin Hood-esque fame is explored, and the series also explains how he indirectly led to the greater empowerment of the FBI. We're also told the fascinating story behind the 1935 Harlem riots (in which over 200 businesses were smashed and looted in response to a murder that didn't happen). The second half of the special details the labor revolution, beginning with the unionization of the textile mills that led to the largest strike in history (and left seven strikers dead in Honea Path, South Carolina) and concluding with the Memorial Day Massacre of 1937, in which ten textile workers were shot to death (mostly in the back, as seen in shocking newsreel footage).

"Desperate Measures," the final episode, spends a great deal of its running time on Walter Waters and the "Bonus March" of 1932, which led to Hoover's badly blundered "Battle of Washington." The show also details the rise (and death) of controversial Louisiana politician Huey Long, as well as many Americans' flirtation with communism in the run-up to World War II.

As expected with a History Channel presentation, the series is well-produced and always interesting, with well-chosen interviews and a terrific assemblage of vintage audio and archival footage. However, its thematic organization isn't entirely effective. In eschewing a straight-forward chronology, events are left out, simplified, or shuffled around--for example, the mistakes of the Battle of Washington are considered by many to be a factor in Hoover's presidential loss, but we don't find out about it until episode four, while Hoover's defeat is covered in episode one.

The more pressing issue, at least for those of us hoping to learn from the miniseries, is how little analysis is offered. The causes of the Depression are given surprisingly short shrift, and it is mostly pinpointed to the Crash without really explaining how one begat the other (the effects of trade decline, debt deflation, and monetary contraction aren't mentioned). The series offers a nice wrap-up in its final five minutes, theorizing on what the period meant and what we learned from it, but for most of its three or so hours, the approach of the show is merely presentational. We look at history, but we don't do much thinking about it.

Video:

All four episodes of The Great Depression are presented on a single disc, and occasional compression artifacts are seen. The 4:3 image mostly presents rough, aged source materials, so their less-than-stellar quality is certainly understandable; the movie clips in episode two are in particularly bad shape (they've presumably been pulled from shoddy public domain prints). But the new interviews and B-roll, while passable, are frequently noisy, with muddy blacks, occasional flickering, and heavy grain in spots.

The 2.0 stereo track is adequate if unexceptional--it's about what you'd expect from an eleven-year old basic cable show. Narration and interviews are crisp and clear, while the new and period music is well-mixed and properly modulated.

No bonus features are offered for this release.

There is certainly plenty of valuable information and fascinating archival footage to be found in The Great Depression, and many of its more interesting stories are frequently left out or glossed over in the history books. But it is also a fairly shallow program; those hoping for analysis and insight (especially in these particularly relevant times) will find themselves sorely disappointed.

Jason lives in New York. He holds an MA in Cultural Reporting and Criticism from NYU.