Introduction -- Hard times from colonial to postrevolutionary America -- Hard times and the financial panics of 1819 and 1837 -- The panics of 1873 and 1893, and hard times in between -- Depressions and policy disputes in America, circa 1720-1928 -- The onset of the Great Depression -- The early New Deal and the Depression -- 1934, a year of fear and rage in America -- The politics of class conflict during 1935 and 1936 -- Recovery and recession, 1937-1939 -- The Great Depression and American culture in the 1930s -- How the Great Depression ended: the Keynesian school of thought -- The revolt against Keynes -- The Great Recession.