Mass production alters the lives of both workers and consumers as master craftsmen are replaced by the assembly line and the labor movement gains strength.
Economic depression triggers unemployment on a global scale. In 1929, the New York Stock Exchange crashes. As banks fail and industry withers, the Great Depression shatters economies and communities around the world.
Following World War I, old prejudices refuse to die and nationalist passions begin to rise. Fascism and militarism spread. By the late 1930s, the world faces a choice of avoiding war at all costs or taking up arms to resist aggression.
Nazism overtakes German society and persecution of Gypsies and Jews begins. Across Eastern Europe, countries are invaded and concentration camps organized to carry out the "final solution.