This chapter explores what is often understood as capitalism’s most severe crisis, the Great Depression of the 1930s. Viewed through the lens of Karl Polanyi’s The Great Transformation, it discusses this period as a part of a broader sequence of political and economic upheavals throughout the interwar era that constituted a crisis of liberal civilisation. Rooted in the economic liberalism’s dogmatic attempt to construct a self-regulating market system, the chapter discusses how Polanyi viewed the emergence of fascism and workers’ revolts as part of a shared response to the social tensions and dislocations of liberal capitalism. Engaging critically with Polanyi, the chapter discusses his contested legacy, the insights and limitations of his work, and what it might tell us about capitalism and crisis, far-right politics, the state, and environmental crisis today.