Product Description
This work examines the 'gold-rush fantasy' in American psychology and describes its dire consequences. The Florida land boom, the operations of Insull, Kreuger and Hatry, and the Shandoah Corporation all come together in Galbraith's study of concerted human greed and folly.Amazon.com Review
Rampant speculation. Record trading volumes. Assets bought notbecause of their value but because the buyer believes he can sell themfor more in a day or two, or an hour or two. Welcome to the late1920s. There are obvious and absolute parallels to the great bullmarket of the late 1990s, writes Galbraith in a new introduction dated1997. Of course, Galbraith notes, every financial bubble since 1929has been compared to the Great Crash, which is why this book has neverbeen out of print since it became a bestseller in 1955.

Galbraith writes with great wit and erudition about the perilousactions of investors, and the curious inaction of the government. Henotes that the problem wasn't a scarcity of securities to buy andsell; "the ingenuity and zeal with which companies were devised inwhich securities might be sold was as remarkable as anything." Thosewords become strikingly relevant in light of revenue-negative start-upcompanies coming into the market each week in the 1990s, along withfragmented pieces of established companies, like real estate andbottling plants. Of course, the 1920s were different from the1990s. There was no safety net below citizens, no unemploymentinsurance or Social Security. And today we don't have the creepyinvestment trusts--in which shares of companies that held some stocksand bonds were sold for several times the assets' market value. But,boy, are the similarities spooky, particularly the prevailing trend atthe time toward corporate mergers and industry consolidations--not tomention all the partially informed people who imagined themselves tobe financial geniuses because the shares of stock they bought keptgoing up. --Lou Schuler ... Read more

Customer Reviews (85)

kindle version is almost unreadable
The _book_ by Galbraith is fine, but the Kindle version is almost unreadable. If you popped the book onto a copy machine then spilled coffee all over it you'd get a better copy than this. It's FILLED with typos that were not in the printed version. Would it have been so difficult Houghton Mifflin Mariner to have proofread this thing? I can sometimes figure out what the garbled number or word is supposed to be, but not all the time.

Great book
Worth reading.Well written, entertaining, a quick read.It mainly focuses on the stock market crash itself, so if you are looking for a monetary/economic explanation of the depression, this is not it. A little light on detail, but quite entertaining.I would recommend this book over "a short history of financial euphoria".

History or Prophesy
One clear advantage of reading a book such as this, so many years after publication, is that time has separated truth from theory. If I had read this thin volume ten years ago, I am sure I would have approached investing and the advice from the investment community with greater caution.

The similarities between the events described in this book and the recent crash is 2008 are astounding. I found myself rereading passages to check dates, names, and investment instruments. Some of the companies listed by Mr. Galbraith who were deeply involved in the most improper investment schemes of the twentiessurvived and evolved to perpetrate a new type of fraud on yet another generation.

Mr. Galbraith carefully lays out the building blocks that paved the way of financial destruction that exploded in 1929. The lack of government oversight, the "irrational exuberance," the willingness of the public to throw their money at hollow investments is documented with precision. This documentation has to stir one's imagination as the similarities of our current financial market continue to bump up against past misdeeds.

Although 1929 has characterized the crash, it was only the starting point of a decline that would continue its steady slide over the next several years. Then, the depression set in and the country's economic woes persisted into the next decade as battered investors chose caution rather than speculation.


The Great Crash 1929 would be an interesting read just in terms of exploring a turning point in American history. But, given our present economic slump and future uncertainties, this book might well be like looking into a crystal ball. I highly recommend it.

She Came from Heaven

Outstanding
We are told over and over that history repeats itself.
Apparently, are so called leaders haven't learned very much.
This book is a real window into what is coming.
The parallels are eerily simular to what is happening today

The Great crash of 1929
A Classic! Gives the best explanation of the the causes of the Great Depression and so of the Crash of 2008. Bubbles and crashes have the same causes, only the names change not the fundamentals.Very interesting the role of Goldman Sachs in both cases ... Read more

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Product Description
Almost overnight, the hopes, dreams, and life savings of millions of Americans were wiped out when the stock market crashed in October of 1929, and ushered in the GreatDepression. This book tells how the unthinkable happened, and how the crash changed the course of history. (20030501) ... Read more

Product Description
The first major history of the Crash in over a decade, Rainbow's End tells the story of the stock market collapse in a colorful, swift-moving narrative that blends a vivid portrait of the 1920s with an intensely gripping account of Wall Street's greatest catastrophe. The book offers a vibrant picture of a world full of plungers, powerful bankers, corporate titans, millionaire brokers, and buoyantly optimistic stock market bulls. We meet Sunshine Charley Mitchell, head of the National City Bank, powerful financiers Jack Morgan and Jacob Schiff, Wall Street manipulators such as the legendary Jesse Livermore, and the lavish-living Billy Durant, founder of General Motors. As Klein follows the careers of these men, he shows us how the financial house of cards gradually grew taller, as the irrational exuberance of an earlier age gripped America and convinced us that the market would continue to rise forever. Then, in October 1929, came a "perfect storm"-like convergence of factors that shook Wall Street to its foundations. We relive Black Thursday, when police lined Wall Street, brokers grew hysterical, customers "bellowed like lunatics," and the ticker tape fell hours behind. This compelling history of the Crash--the first to follow the market closely for the two years leading up to the disaster--illuminates a major turning point in our history. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (12)

Crash of 29
Since college I have been an active reader of causes for the crash. Nothing in my text books can compare with the facts in this book. There are so many parallels to our current situation and the run up to the crash. It is easy reading for so much history. It dispells the myth that business will regulate itself without government oversight by an unbiased presentation of the facts and allows you to draw your own conclusions for what went wrong. It is a must read for those interested in preventing this from ever happening again. Brokers were paid huge bonuses in 1930 because of their large number of trades in 1929.

Not bad, but there are better resources
This book is not bad, but it is a little disappointing. Both Galbraith's The Great Crash 1929 and Frederick Lewis Allen's Only Yesterday: An Informal History of the 1920's were written within a couple of years of the Crash, and are arguably (1) better written and (2) more tightly constructed. For sheer detail of the financial world, either Galbraith's book or the original Pecora Report from Ferdinand Pecora and the congressional committee that investigated the causes of the crash (The Pecora Report: The 1934 Report on the Practices of Stock Exchanges from the "Pecora Commission") would be better matches and more interesting reads.

A new perspective on the Depression
At Rainbow's End provides a succinct yet through look at the Great Depression and how it changed life in America.By tracking the prosperities of the 1920s and the rise of consumer culture the reader gets a clear picture of the investment frenzy that gripped the nation.The over valuation of stocks and the financial crisis is clearly laid out in laymen's terms with an overview for those who want the technical financial explanation.It tracks interesting vignettes and mini biographies of major players and how they affected and were changed by the depression.It does not look at the solutions to the depression, only the causes.This is an average entry into the Pivotal Moments in American history.The problem is that this is such a no brainier event for the series that it does not take much convincing and this book does not try to do so. Instead it tries to give a social perspective which while new and different may not excite all readers. It is still a great book and one that provides a new perspective. For those interested in the roaring twenties it is a great book to look at.

Starts stong, loses pace.A weak entry for the Pivotal Moment Series.
Rainbow's End, by Maury Klein could have been a good book.In fact, it should have been a great historical read about America during the Roaring Twenties, leading up to and precipitating the Crash and the Depression.But Klein falls far short and disappoints with this entry into the "Pivotal Moments in American History" published by the Oxford University Press.This volume seemingly couldn't decide whether to be decidedly research based or, as with others in this series, to be a narrative form "that can be read for pleasure and instruction by anyone with an interest in its subject", according to it editors, David Hackett Fischer and James M. McPherson.

The book's prologue "The Summer of Fun, 1929" is clearly its highlight, certainly a dubious distinction. "In the summer of 1929 much of America was on an artificial high.It was a high born not of drugs but of an illusion that the prosperity and the good times then being enjoyed were made of new miracle ingredients that would last forever." Klein paints a vivid portrait of life in America in his early pages but sadly does not follow along in that form.

Throughout the book the reader cannot help but think that this is more of a reporter giving much more detail than needed, literally day by day of the Dow and the New York Times Index, often in the absolute and without percentages so one gets a relative idea of what was going on.Additionally, and quite strangely, Klein doesn't weave into his writing the many causes of the Crash and also poorly differentiates between the Crash and the Depression.One gets the idea that if he were to take out long and seemingly unrelated passages such as one on Evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson and much of the above mentioned ticker tape readings he would have had ample room to discuss not only the causes and effects of the Crash but also would have been able to maintain the narrative style in the beginning of Rainbow's End.

To Klein's credit he does a very good job with the Coolidge and Hoover administrations and in his discussions on the nascent stages of the Federal Reserve.He also drives home the point of a much smaller federal government role in the years prior to FDR and its lack of ability to "rescue" a calamitous market and the resultant depressed economy, "Federal purchase of goods and services totaled about 1.3 percent of GNP and federal construction a tiny 2 percent, hardly enough to serve as a prime stimulant".

Perhaps the saddest part of this writing is that, in its current form, much could be done to improve it.Little to no additional research is needed.Just a rewrite and more color and less droning on and on about redundant economic and market statistics.This book, in its research and obvious talents of its author, fails to make an interesting topic captivating to the reader.Clearly a laggard in this fabulous series.

One of the best books to learn about the market and enjoy it too!
I have to admit I am a bit biased since I am interested in the Stock Market and especially the present market's similarity to that of the time referred to in the book.But, it's a lot more than that!It is very well written and though it probably is written for those 11th grade and higher, it is easy to read.It is loaded with real-life history.My wife has already completed it and I am part done.We plan on having our oldest four children read it. Theprologue on the 1929 summer seemed to place you right there--even though I never visited New York City itself.My wife mentioned it made the stock market easy to understand especially margins and short selling.I think she also mentioned puts and calls, which is the one area of the stock market I would like more practice with.If you are into history or want to really learn about the market, this is the best place to start.Highly recommended!

Tom from Michigan ... Read more

Product Description
The Great Depressionbegan on "Black Tuesday" with the Wall Street Crash of October, 1929 and rapidly spread worldwide. The market crash marked the beginning of a decade of high unemployment, poverty, low profits, deflation, plunging farm incomes, and lost opportunities for economic growth and personal advancement. Although its causes are still uncertain and controversial, the net effect was a sudden and general loss of confidence in the economic future. The usual explanations include numerous factors, especially high consumer debt, ill-regulated markets that permitted malfeasance by banks and investors, cutbacks in foreign trade, lack of high-growth new industries, and growing wealth inequality, all interacting to create a downward economic spiral of reduced spending, falling confidence, and lowered production. The initial government response to the crisis exacerbated the situation; protectionist policies like the 1930 Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act in the U.S. strangled global trade as other nations retaliated against the U.S. Industries that suffered the most included agriculture, mining, and logging as well as durable goods like construction and automobiles that people postponed. ... Read more

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This digital document is an article from Encyclopedia of the Great Depression, brought to you by Gale®, a part of Cengage Learning, a world leader in e-research and educational publishing for libraries, schools and businesses.The length of the article is 2703 words.The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase.You can view it with any web browser.Provides a comprehensive overview of the Great Depression, this wide-ranging, multidisciplinary encyclopedia features entries on Depression-era politics, government, business, economics, literature, the arts, society, and culture. ... Read more

Product Description
On Thursday, October 24, 1929, "the great bull market" of the 1920s crashed. Scholars continue to debate what caused the panic that prompted irrational investors to Sell! Sell! Sell! This anthology examines the economic climate that led to the Crash, the frenzy and panic of the Crash itself, and the impact the Crash had on investors and the future of stock speculation. (20020901) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (6)

A brief comment
This was a very readable and interesting account of the events leading up to the great crash. Weaving together the stories of diverse people, from Hollywood to Wall Street, the author gives a vivid picture of this chaotic time and its aftermath.

The many anecdotes are fascinating as well as poignant; Winston Churchill himself was present at the New York stock exchange on that fateful day in October when he came to the U.S. to visit William Randolph Hearst, and had no idea he had lost his own fortune until he returned to England. Churchill watched the commotion on the trading floor below from a balcony, not realizing his own fortune, which was heavily invested in U.S. stocks, was vanishing. A famous, wealthy trader (whose name escapes me), courageously but foolishly walks around to the major trading stations on the floor, expending his own fortune to buy what he thinks are bargain-priced stocks while the other traders cheer in approval. His heroic gesture was fruitless, however, and he was wiped out minutes later. Groucho Marx was an avid trader and continually interrupted the filming of "Duck Soup" to call his stock broker.* Marx lost everything in the crash. A few, such as Will Rogers, pulled their money out in time and saved their fortunes.

Set against the turbulent backdrop of the 1920s with its labor upheavals, gangland activities (the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, which was never proved but attributed to Al Capone, occurred in 1929), and frenetic stock market, as the country enjoyed a fin-de-siecle but soon to vanish prosperity, this book provides an informative, readable, and entertaining account of that fateful year.

*Note: Not sure it was Duck Soup at this point, but anyway, it was whatever movie the Marx brothers were filming at that time.

Great slice of historicalsocial perspectives of the 1929 Crash...
A very good presentation of the social and economic events occurring around the 1929 stock market crash.Klingaman always has an excellent way of organizing various aspects of history during a certain time period.In this book you get a slice of what is occurring in the White House, Hollywood, organized crime and the some of the average person economic happenings.Klingaman presents the before crash event(with all the optimism), what occurs during with all the hopeful speculation, and the afterward follow-up. He highlights the ineffectiveness of Hoover and touches upon the emerging FDR and talks of how Joe Kennedy enjoyed taking others money while people fell poor.This book was a great read about social and economic history of this time. I recommend reading this, along with a "Once in Golconda" by John Brooks.

An absorbing reading experience
I read this book because I so enjoyed reading the author's 1941: Our Lives in a World on the Edge, which I finished reading 29 Nov 1997.This book is just as good.This is not academic history, but Klingaman weaves from other books and contemporary sources an account of the time from Election Day in 1928 till mid-1930, and does a superlative job.He does not tell what happens in the future but tells the events as they unfold.The only way that the future is involved is in the selection of the events to be related.And he does not discuss only the stock market, but brings in things such as the St. Valentine's Day massacre on Feb 14, 1929, and the events when Hoover was inaugurated--supposedly Hoover and Coolidge as they rode to the Inauguration said not a word to each other!The book is just filled with interesting items of information.One wonders how different it would be written after the bubble burst of 2000-2001.I have read at least two other books on the Crash of 1929 (The Day America Crashed, by Tom Schactman--read 3 July 1979--and The Day the Bubble Burst, by Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan-Witts--read 25 Mar 2000)and this book is a better book than either of those.

Compelling and a bit scary!
Had I read this book 10 years ago (it's now 2003), I would have passed it off as an interesting story and a good account of a time long past.When reading it today, I have to constantly look at the title to remind myself that it is referring to 1929 and not 1999!

Compelling and a bit scary!
Had I read this book 10 years ago (it's now 2003), I would have passed it off as an interesting story and a good account of a time long past.When reading it today, I have to constantly look at the title to remind myself that it is referring to 1929 and not 1999! ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Worth Reading
The people described come across as being very real and the great research made to produce this book is apparent. The greed of some and the stupidity of others might remind you of the events of 2008 etc. You will understand why some of the regulations enacted from the crash of 1929 were so needed and why they should not have been abandoned by our modern politicians. A great history book describing events that didn't need to be repeated.

The best on the subject
Even though out of print, this is simply the best book on the subject. It is wonderfully written. A movie script could not be more gripping. The authors have done a terrific job in juxtaposing the stories of the ultra rich speculators ( the portrayal of the powerful Morgan bank and its partners alone is worth the price of the book) against those of the ordinary people caught up in the frenzy. The book sweeps you along from Wall Street to Main Street to foreign lands. You won't put it down. The research is top notch with a rich bibliography.Buy it !!

BUY!!!
In the waning months of the year 1929, the New York Stock Exchange was going strong. Millions of small and large investors poured their life savings into the pool of speculative issues, hoping for a big return on their gamble. On Black Tuesday, October 29th, the dream came to a crashing halt. This is the heart wrenching tale of that fateful day: the giddy years that preceded it, and the miserable decade that followed in it's wake. Sterling drama, with many poignant stories of the principal movers and shakers of Wall Street...before the Bubble burst. ... Read more

Product Description
Attempting to reveal the real causes of the 1929 market crash, Bierman refutes the popular belief that wild speculation had excessively driven up stock market prices and resulted in the crash. Although he acknowledges some prices of stocks such as utilities and banks were overpriced, reasonable explanations exist for the level and increase of all other securities prices. Indeed, if stocks were overpriced in 1929, then they are even more overpriced in the current era of staggering growth in stock prices and investment in securities. The causes of the 1929 crash, Bierman argues, lie in an unfavorable decision by the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities coupled with the popular practice known as debt leverage in the 1920s corporate and investment arena. ... Read more

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"The Crash and Its Aftermath is an excellent work of reference on the Great Contraction. It will be useful both to people with only a passing curiosity about the Crash and to those for whom the Great Depression is a major scholarly concern" Business History "From now on any serious student of the Depression will be obliged to consult this work for a sense of securities price movements, investor attitudes, and relevant contemporary sources." Journal of Economic History ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Wonderful, packed with data
Wigmore is a financial professional who has created a magnificent work of scholarship.Twelve years in the writing, written about 20 years ago, it makes for amazing reading after the Crash of 2008.An essential book for any serious student of the Great Depression and the history of financial markets.

The Great Unraveling
Wigmore stresses that the Great Depression was not solely attributable to ill-advised monetary policy, but was primarily due to instabilities in the US economy.The 1929 stock market crash was the culmination of the speculative excesses of the 1920s: according to Wigmore, stock prices peaked at 30 times earnings and reached levels in excess of 400% of aggregate book value while return on equity was only about 16.5%.Wigmore studies the performance of the US banking system, and analyzes the measures the US government employed to address the crisis, such as the establishment of the Reconstruction Finance Corporation and the promulgation of the National Industrial Recovery Act. Exacerbating and prolonging the Depression were singularly unfortunate policy choices, such as the enactment of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act which seemed tailor-made to widen the disparity between US and overseas markets. Anyone interested in the monetarist-Keynesian debate as to how the Depression began or in the emergence of bureaucratic sprawl created in the wake of the New Deal will find this volume insightful.

Hard reading, but mostly worth the effort
This is a rather dry and verbose but also careful and thorough financial and economic history.
I particularly like his explanation of why there was a banking crisis in 1933. Most other authors seem confused about this crisis, but Wigmore explains how the hints that Roosevelt planned to devalue the dollar, combined with a system under which bank deposits were tied to paper dollars but could be withdrawn as gold, made it safer to hold gold than to leave one's money in a bank. ... Read more

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Over six terrifying, desperate days in October 1929, the fabulous fortune that Americans had built in stocks plunged with a fervor never seen before. At first, the drop seemed like a mistake, a mere glitch in the system. But as the decline gathered steam, so did the destruction. Over twenty-five billion dollars in individual wealth was lost, vanished?gone. People watched their dreams fade before their very eyes. Investing in the stock market would never be the same.

Here, Wall Street Journal bureau chief Karen Blumenthal chronicles the six-day period that brought the country to its knees, from fascinating tales of key stock-market players, like Michael J. Meehan, an immigrant who started his career hustling cigars outside theaters and helped convince thousands to gamble their hard-earned money as never before, to riveting accounts of the power struggles between Wall Street and Washington, to poignant stories from those who lost their savings -- and more -- to the allure of stocks and the power of greed.

For young readers living in an era of stock-market fascination, this engrossing account explains stock-market fundamentals while bringing to life the darkest days of the mammoth crash of 1929. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Superb - and it explains the stock market in detail!
If you've ever struggled to either understand or explain the stock market, Six Days in October will make things crystal clear while simultaneously explaining the stock market crash of 1929 that brought about the Great Depression in an engaging way that holds the reader's attention.

Loaded with period illustrations, including primary documents, Six Days in October is vital to the middle school study of the 20th century and is a wonderful addition to any library intended for young adults.

Highly Recommended!

This is a great book that'svery informative andeasy reading.
This is a great book for understanding the causes and effects of the 1929 Stock Market Crash.This book not only answered all my questions about the crash, but it supplied me with a detailed account of the events that led up to the market crash and the aftermath that followed. It illustrates how greed, fear, ignorance, and deceit fueled the market crash. In addition, it dispels the myth that the 1929 Stock Market Crash caused the Great Depression. Because these same elements continue to influence the market today, it would be to one's advantage to learn about the crash before investing in the market. This book is for ages 12 and above.

Non-fiction thatis not boring
This was a great book that I loved reading. I am into history and this book gave lots of details about the stock market crash that made it easy to understand. I think lots of kids will like this book if they give it a chance. ... Read more

Product Description

The Great Depression had a devastating effect on much of the world’s developed economies. (For example, at its nadir, around one-quarter of the US workforce was unemployed. And, in Britain, exports virtually halved by 1933 as international trade collapsed.) The political and cultural consequences of the Great Depression were equally far-reaching.

The ongoing search fully to comprehend the worldwide economic collapse in the 1930s remains a dizzying intellectual challenge (‘the Holy Grail of macroeconomics’ according to Ben Bernanke). Moreover, the current global economic and financial tumult has prompted many economists—as well as scholars from related disciplines—to explore the Great Depression anew in the hope of gaining knowledge on how best to survive the latest desperately serious and sustained global economic slump.

As research in and around the Great Depression flourishes as never before this new addition to Routledge’s Critical Concepts in Economics series meets the need for an authoritative reference work to make sense of the subject’s vast literature and the continuing explosion in scholarly output. Edited by two leading scholars in the field, this new Routledge Major Work is a five-volume collection of classic and cutting-edge contributions.

With a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editors, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, The Great Depression is an essential work of reference and is destined to be valued as a vital research tool.