In 1932, Roosevelt defeated Herbert Hoover in a landslide election for the U.S. presidency. Much of this was due to the fact that the hard times of the Great Depression, felt by all citizens then, was blamed on Hoover, (as evidenced in the nicknaming of Dust Bowl migrants' shantytowns as "Hoovervilles.") Upon his inauguration, Roosevelt immediately introduced legislation for a wide range of modern liberal reforms intended to stimulate the economy and start the country back on the road to prosperity. These programs, known together as the New Deal, along with Roosevelt's deft media manipulation, would make him so popular that he was elected four times – twice more than any president before or since. (For information on Roosevelt's presidency see the 1940s.)

In Germany, a political maelstrom was brewing. By the early 1930s, the president and other U.S. officials had learned of Hitler's power and domination in Europe. Under Hitler, the Nazi regime striped away the rights of Jews and other citizens, killed the innocent, sterilized people with genetic defects and vied for German world domination. Leni Reifenstahl, German actress-turned-director, captured the 1934 Nazi rally in Nuremberg and the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, among others. (Click on the picture for a clip from Reifenstahl's "Triumph Des Willens," which documents Nuremberg.)

The stock market crashed on October 24, 1929, initiating the Great Depression. Corporate profits sank to one-tenth of their 1929-levels by 1933, and the gross national product declined by 50 percent. By that year, the unemployed numbered 13 million people – one in four workers. Roosevelt's New Deal created government projects, which would employ many of these people, e.g., building roads and dams, in the hopes of stimulating the economy. The Dust Bowl drought eroded nine million acres of Midwestern farmland, driving hundreds of thousands of farmers to abandon their farms and head West to California, as depicted in John Steinbeck's masterpiece novel "The Grapes of Wrath." Due to the state of the economy, union membership increased dramatically, and communism as an ideology attracted many people who saw big business' greed as responsible for the Depression. Many of these people would come to regret such affiliations in the McCarthy era. (See McCarthyism.)

"Amos 'n' Andy" was by far the most popular radio program, which relied for its humor on two white men imitating (and helping to define) a stereotype of African-Americans. In Hollywood, Busby Berkeley produced several spectacular, fabulously choreographed musicals, with innovative cinematography and lavish sets and costumes. Frank Capra spoke to a dispirited nation with movies like "American Madness." "The Wizard of Oz" and "Gone With The Wind," both directed by Victor Fleming, were released in 1938. Mexican border radio stations featured hillbilly music shows, which introduced to the country such influential artists as the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers. Woody Guthrie moved to New York, bringing his songs of Okie travails and social protest to the city. Important blues musicians such as Robert Johnson, Charlie Patton and Son House cut several records and toured mostly in the South.

The Lindbergh Kidnapping Trial: On March 1, 1932, shocked Americans learned that the 20-month-old baby of the world's biggest celebrity and hero, Charles Lindbergh, had been abducted. The dead baby was found near the Lindberghs' home a month after the first, secret ransom payment was made. A trail of gold certificates used to pay the ransom eventually led to a German immigrant carpenter named Bruno Richard Hauptmann. The subsequent trial was a prime candidate for "the trial of the century." Hauptmann was all but convicted by the newsreels and public opinion before the jury's verdict was read. Despite some holes in the prosecution's case, Hauptmann was convicted and executed in 1936.

Documentary Photography: The development of photography as a way to document human experiences for news consumption began with the portable Leica camera and success of Life magazine. Robert Capa took memorable photos while his partner Gerda Taro shot newsreel footage of Republican soldiers fighting in the Spanish Civil War (Click here for more on Capa and Taro.) Lange captured the Okie migrant experience, as well as those of other Americans not previously considered important or pretty enough for the camera.

Creation of the FCC: The Federal Communications Act passed by Congress in 1934 re-created the Federal Radio Commission as the Federal Communications Commission, adding telephone and telegraph lines to the commission's responsibilities. The Act granted commercial radio broadcasters continued hegemony over the airwaves, but did include provisions requiring stations to give equal time to opponents of political candidates who were afforded airtime. The same section denied broadcasters the right to censor a candidate's material.

Newsreels' Heyday: The newsreel first appeared in 1910, and soon they showed before the main feature in more than 15,000 U.S. theatres each week. Relying on music scores and staged re-creations of events, newsreels were the dramatic predecessors of television news. The most popular of these in the 1930s, when the medium hit its stride in popularity, was the "March of Time" series. Unlike so many of its competitors, this series dealt with controversial subjects.

Batman and Superman First Appear: "The Caped Crusader" and the "Man of Steel" arrive, respectively, in the DC comics series Detective Comics in 1937, and in Action Comics in 1938. They each got their own comic book in the next couple years, spawned hosts of imitators, and later enjoyed translation into every other kind of media. (Read more about comics in the 1940s).