From Forbes:

The era of the Great Depression is much studied by scholars these days, in good measure because Americans are trying to gauge the extent of the current recovery. When studying a period, you don't just look at the data. The culture will tell you more than numbers can. For example, 1935 wasn't merely the sixth year of the Depression; it was the year that the board game Monopoly took off in popularity and sales. Leading all the other games, the New York Times wrote, was the "season's craze, 'Monopoly,' the game of real estate." More here.