Recession? Depression? What's the difference?

Before the Great Depression of the 1930s any downturn in economic activity was referred to as a depression. The term recession was developed to differentiate periods like the 1930s from smaller economic declines that occurred in 1910 and 1913. A depression is simply a recession that lasts longer and has a larger decline in business activity.

A good rule of thumb for determining the difference between a recession and a depression is to look at the changes in Gross National Product. A depression is any economic downturn where real Gross Domestic Product declines by more than 10 percent. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the total amount of goods and services produced in the United States in a year and is calculated by adding together all final market values.

By this yardstick, the last depression in the United States was from May 1937 to June 1938, where real GDP declined by 18.2 percent. More.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.