The Spin Structure of the nucleon

This talk will review the status of the experiments studying the spin structure of the nucleon. After a brief overview of the topics, I will focus on the program measuring the generalized Gerasimov-Drell-Hearn (GDH) sum, in the context of connecting the effective descriptions of the strong force at long distances to its fundamental partonic description at short distances. The generalized GDH sum rule is a theoretical relation valid at any distance. Consequently, it can be an Ariadne's thread to follow to understand how the transition between the partonic to hadronic descriptions happens. Measurements at intermediate and short distances have been made available in the 1990s and 2000s. Long distance results are being now finalized. With them, a large part of this experimental program will be completed. I will give the status of the measurements at long distances. I will then conclude the talk with a practical example on how the GDH data are used to connect the fundamental and effective descriptions of the strong force. Such example demonstrates how the generalized GDH program is bearing fruits.