This study examines the economic and social consequences for Glasgow of the global crisis of capitalism known as the Great Depression, and how this is represented in five realist novels published during the 1930s. It is argued that the inter-war era was a time of both cultural renaissance and political revolution, and a liminal moment in Glasgow's history, defining economic and social conditions in the city for most of the twentieth century. It was also a significant phase in the development of the narrative of the city, creating a new form of literary representation of Glasgow, and a new genre of urban realism in Scottish literature.