Description
Book SynopsisChallenging conventional history, Amity Shlaes offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression that devastated America in the early part of the twentieth century. She shows how both Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt failed to understand the prosperity of the 1920s and heaped massive burdens on the country that more than offset the benefit of New Deal programs. From 1929 to 1940, federal intervention helped to make the Depression great by forgetting the men and women who sought to help themselves.
In this illuminating work of history, Shlaes follows the struggles of those now forgotten people, from a family of butchers in Brooklyn who dealt a stunning blow to the New Deal, to Bill W., who founded Alcoholics Anonymous, and Father Divine, a black cult leader. She takes a fresh look at the great scapegoats of the period, from Andrew Mellon to Sam Insull of Chicago. Finally, she traces the mounting agony of the New Dealers themselves. Authoritative, original, and utterly
Trade Review
That rare thing - an original, readable, compelling book about economic depression and how politicians can make things worse. The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes is a counterintuitive study of the Wall Street Crash and how politics turned chaos into crisis * The Times *
Amity Shlaes not only manages to keep you wide awake, she also sets your blood to boiling. Even if you don't always agree with her conclusions, she defines the debate over what we ought to do and gets you thinking constructively about the problems she identifies * New York Times *
Combines the lively narrative style of a first-rate journalist with the careful scholarship of a born historian. But her book is much more than an enjoyable narrative. It is a highly original reinterpretation that turns the received wisdom about the Depression on its head * Sunday Telegraph *
Readers have waited eagerly for this book for decades. Amity Shlaes has delivered it -- Paul Johnson
Amity Shlaes' brilliant and highly readable book surely must be the best analysis of the Great Depression ever * Washington Times *
