Synopsis
Necessity is the mother of invention. It’s also the father of character. In history class, we’ve been taught that the Great Depression was all about crashing stock markets, snaking breadlines, and ecological disasters. We learned that FDR tried to put it right with the New Deal, but it was only World War II that finally succeeded in revitalizing the American economy. But that’s not the whole story. The “Greatest Generation” didn’t earn that title by sitting around hoping things would get better. The hard times of the Great Depression led to a surge in innovation that we never learned about in school. Did you know that refrigerator sales spiked during the 1930s? Did you know this was the decade that brought us blockbuster monster movies and animated films? Did you know these were the years many families adopted their first dog? Those are just a handful of the stories you were never taught. This “tapas menu” take on the 1930s shows that bad times create the most surprising outcomes.
Author Bio
Jason Voiovich is a practicing marketing and advertising executive who has launched hundreds of new products in a career that spans more than 25 years. He co-founded two startups of his own—one focused on training the next generation of fractional executives and another focused on delivering transformation user experience (UX) technology. Voiovich is a graduate of both the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota, and he has completed post-graduate studies at the MIT Sloan School of Management. His innovation history books focus on the rise, challenge, and triumph of consumer culture in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s.
