Depressionomics

In violent times, you shouldn't have to sell your soul
In black and white, they really, really ought to know
--Tears for Fears

If you seek understanding of the Depression from the a classical economic perspective, there's none better than Murray Rothbard's work. Rothbard was a student of credit expansion and contraction (a.k.a. booms and busts), and his apolitical style is fresh and fun to read.

In this missive, Rothbard refutes the claim that the Depression was a consequence of 'free market capitalism' gone awry. As he notes, markets were not free during the Roaring Twenties runup into the period. Bureaucratic policies, such as ultra loose credit from the Fed, blew a bubble that ultimately burst. Subsequent intervention by bureaucrats to 'fix' the bust merely extended the corrective period.

Indeed, as Rothbard notes, never in previous US history had there been such significant intervention, nor had there been such a drawn out depression.

History often rhymes...loudly.

See Rothbard (1963) for his seminal cite-laden work in this area.

References

Rothbard, M.N. 1963. America's Great Depression. Princeton, NJ: D Van Nostrand Co.