The Great Depression: America 1929-1941

By Robert S. McElvaine

Book Overview

One of the classic studies of the Great Depression, featuring a new introduction by the author with insights into the economic crises of 1929 and today. In the twenty-five years since its publication, critics and scholars have praised historian Robert McElvaine's sweeping and authoritative history of the Great Depression as one of the best and most readable studies of the era. Combining clear-eyed insight into the machinations of politicians and economists who struggled to revive the battered economy, personal stories from the average people who were hardest hit by an economic crisis beyond their control, and an evocative depiction of the popular culture of the decade, McElvaine paints an epic picture of an America brought to its knees--but also brought together by people's widely shared plight. In a new introduction, McElvaine draws striking parallels between the roots of the Great Depression and the economic meltdown that followed in the wake of the credit crisis of 2008. He also examines the resurgence of anti-regulation free market ideology, beginning in the Reagan era, and argues that some economists and politicians revised history and ignored the lessons of the Depression era. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0812923278
• ISBN13: 9780812923278
• Release Date: December 1993
• Publisher: Times Books
• Length: 448 Pages
• Weight: 1.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 1.1" x 6.1"

Customer Reviews

The Depression from the bottom-up

Having just read "The Forgotten Man" by Amity Shlaes, and "The Great Depression" by Robert McElvaine, back-to-back, I have the opportunity to compare how both authors treat this complex topic. What struck me is that Shlaes' approach seems to be "top-down" while McElvaine's approach is "bottom-up". McElvaine sprinkles into his text the correspondence from ordinary Americans to the Roosevelts; the language is rich, heartfelt,...

Wonderful history book

Wow. I've read a lot of history over the years and this is clearly one of the best. Way more than a recitation of facts, McElvaine offers an interpretation of what was going on in the 1920s and 1930s. I know conservatives will hate this and accuse it of a liberal bias -- and McElvaine is clearly a liberal -- but it's hard to see how Coolidge Economics -- tax cuts for the wealthy, an anti-regulatory atmosphere, an explosion...

New Deal as Seen from the Reagan Era

This book was written in 1983, in the early years of Ronald Reagan's presidency. It's very interesting to see how angry the Reagan fans are at reading it. Biased! they cry, and so it is... forthrightly biased against Reagan, but intelligently skeptical toward the alleged success of Keynsian solutions to the Depression. Critics of FDR today seem widely to assume that the New Deal was strictly a Keynsian operation; McElvaine...

Good Book on the History of the Great Depression

This is a good book on the HISTORY of the Great Depression era. If you are writing a college paper or just want to read an authoritative book on the subject, read this book. I was impressed with how thoroughly the author detailed the people, the times, and the policies that were enacted (and the political reasons they came about in that form) and kept the book moving along. There are details and more details. I was surprised...

Terrific Overview Of The Great Depression Of The 193Os

Most historians agree that the Second World War is the single most important event shaping and directing subsequent developments throughout the balance of the 20th century. Indeed, no single other event so shaped the world or influenced the events leading to that war than did the great worldwide depression. In this wonderful book by historian Robert McElvaine, we are treated to a terrific account of the human ordeal of the...