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The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression
by
Amity Shlaes
In "The Forgotten Man," Amity Shlaes, one of the nation's most-respected economic commentators, offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression. She traces the mounting agony of the New Dealers and the moving stories of individual citizens who through their brave perseverance helped establish the steadfast character we recognize as American today.
Hardcover, 464 pages
Published
June 1st 2007
by Jonathan Cape
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This was a wonderful history of the Great Depression from a policy-making/political standpoint. It really illustrates that if the politicians would have stuck to free market principles the Great Depression would not have been so great. But instead, they jumped on the Soviet bandwagon and tried to implement Socialist programs. FDR relied on advisers that visited the USSR and saw the sanitized version of Communism that Stalin wanted them to see; they even visited with Stalin!
It destroys the myth...more
It destroys the myth...more
An examination of the Great Depression by a fiscal conservative. This book has been avidly read within Republican circles, and ideas from the book are lacing GOP rhetoric on the faltering economy. That's a shame, as the book is an example of very sloppy scholarship.
Shlaes's main thrust is that Franklin Roosevelt's policies served to worsen the Depression. She explains that the flurry of New Deal policies, fired by FDR's hostility to business, created a chaotic environment in which business was...more
Shlaes's main thrust is that Franklin Roosevelt's policies served to worsen the Depression. She explains that the flurry of New Deal policies, fired by FDR's hostility to business, created a chaotic environment in which business was...more
I encourage the reading of this book. When I was in school we all came away with a certain vision or narrative of/about the period known as "the Great Depression". It was a fairly simple view. FDR was the "hero" who led us through the depression and out the other end. Frankly I don't know what children/young people today come away with as I'm not that thrilled with what passes for education now. I doubt however it would be that different.
My parents and grandparents having lived through that era...more
My parents and grandparents having lived through that era...more
This was a tremendously informative book about the Great Depression. For me, at least, it debunked a lot of the myths about the New Deal and Roosevelt's first one hundred days in office. I felt Amity Shlaes did a monumental and extremely thorough job of researching the economic history of this era.
Having recently read up to 1940 in David Kennedy's "Freedom from Fear," I had begun to understand why the business community greatly disliked the Roosevelt Administration. I had always been curious ab...more
Having recently read up to 1940 in David Kennedy's "Freedom from Fear," I had begun to understand why the business community greatly disliked the Roosevelt Administration. I had always been curious ab...more
Alright, I promised before I would deliver a review of the book, The Forgotten Man by Amity Schlaes. You can get this book from Amazon.com.
The Forgotten Man is a look at the events of the Great Depression in the United States during the 1930s from the perspective of policy. I found it to be a fascinating look into the lives and viewpoints of people who were involved in the landmark political events during this decade.
The book begins in 1927. Floods in the midwest caused widespread damage through...more
The Forgotten Man is a look at the events of the Great Depression in the United States during the 1930s from the perspective of policy. I found it to be a fascinating look into the lives and viewpoints of people who were involved in the landmark political events during this decade.
The book begins in 1927. Floods in the midwest caused widespread damage through...more
Aug 03, 2008
Rebecca
rated it
4 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
voters, history buffs
Shelves:
reference-books,
books-i-own
Readable but a little dense--it's never taken me 3 weeks to read 400 pages before. This sounds like the kind of book that would only be of interest to a history nerd, but with the current situation it's an absolutely imperative read for all voters. We're all fed one version of the Depression and the New Deal as inevitable and necessary, respectively, and that war was the only thing that shocked us out of it. Reading this book forces you to realize that the Depression didn't have to be either Gre...more
“[W]hen wages moved ahead, profits narrowed and shareholders lost.” (Shlaes 337) Essentially if capitalism is to fulfill itself, and ‘succeed’, wages must be suppressed. Amazing what you can learn from a conservative screed that simplifies the Depression into Hoover did too little and Roosevelt went over the top. The Forgotten Man also completely forgets to talk about the forgotten man. If you want to read a ton about the minutia of who was involved with a cornucopia of public and fiscal policy,...more
This book provides a fresh, new look at the events leading up to the Great Depression and the government’s attempts to bring the country back from disaster. The author not only reviews the events, but also the players, on both the government and private sector sides of the story.
Like a lot of issues, the Great Depression was a lot more complex than we are led to believe. And the recovery, too, was a slow and painstaking process, and was not just a matter of “spending our way back to prosperity.”...more
Like a lot of issues, the Great Depression was a lot more complex than we are led to believe. And the recovery, too, was a slow and painstaking process, and was not just a matter of “spending our way back to prosperity.”...more
Excellent book. This is not a quick read but it is excellent. Amity Shlaes wrote this prescient book in 2006. It is eery to read about depressed home values, anti-Wall Street sentiment, tax increases, increased government, job loss, and it all takes place in the 1930's.
Shlaes gives interesting details about the personalities of the men and women who influenced FDR. She describes the policies put in place that expanded government and alienated business covering 1927 through 1940 without too many...more
Shlaes gives interesting details about the personalities of the men and women who influenced FDR. She describes the policies put in place that expanded government and alienated business covering 1927 through 1940 without too many...more
This 2007 history, written by a nut-job libertarian, tells the story of the “forgotten man,” the businessman and workers who were “trying to get along without public relief and has been attempting the same thing since the depression that cracked down on him.” (13) These forgotten men funded government programs through sales and property taxes but struggled as their tax dollars helped to expand the government’s size and influence in the marketplace. Shlaes’ account is informed by libertarian bend...more
a miserable little book. from its subtitle, you might imagine it has something to do with the great depression. its not actually a history of the depression at all. instead, its an intertwined biography of a set of variably prominent public features from the 1930's. rather than reading about the lives of the millions of jobless, homeless and dispossessed you'll be treated to paeans to the unjust suffering of andrew mellon at the hands of heartless new dealers. rather than learning how new deal e...more
History is not static. Well, the events have happened and that can't change but what we can or have learned from it are as fluid as anyone can relate to them. Viet Nam was a failure, or Viet Nam was a necessary war, I've heard both analysis defended equally strongly. That is just an easy one to use, imagine something as loaded with events as the 20's and 30's. When I was a child the party line was that the depression was caused by the bad 20's and we were merely paying the price from our bad (my...more
Liberals call this book revisionist history while conservatives suggest this period of history deserves not only a new look but possible revision. True history and evaluation should rely on real data. In fact, we don't know exactly what moved the country out of the depression. Has our country recovered from economic downturns in the past without massive Federal programs? Yes. Can massive programs sometimes influence our economy? Sure. Is it possible that some New Deal programs prolonged the depr...more
In any high school or college course on American history, the chapter on the Great Depression goes roughly as follows. The late 1920s saw the stock market, devoid of modern regulation, inflate in a bubble. In October 1929 the bubble popped, which caused deflation. In 1930, President Herbert Hoover signed into law the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act, disregarding the petition of 1,028 economists to veto it, which ruined the foreign trade of the United States. The unemployment rate quickly rose from aroun...more
This is a history of the Great Depression written from a pro-capitalism perspective. However, it does not read like a right-wing polemic. That makes it all the more insidious (heh, heh, heh). One of the issues Shlaes discusses is the gold standard. During the Great Depression, the federal government took several actions to weaken the gold standard. The most famous was the order that private citizens were no longer allowed to own gold, except in very small amounts, such as jewelry. Everyone had t...more
Shlaes uses William Graham Sumner's "forgotten man" to expose the problems with FDR's New Deal. To paraphrase Sumner, A sees the plight of X and says to B, "Let's pass some legislation to help X," and C gets the bill. Sumner wrote about C: "He works, he votes, generally he prays - but he always pays - yes, above all, he pays." The identity of A is the progressives and B is Congress. It is laudable that A wants to help X but tinkering with the economy at the expense of C only exacerbates the prob...more
A good and objective overview of the times of the Great Depression and the impact of the New Deal. While the New Deal had things that did work, it was not quite the cure all that history can sometimes make it seem. There was a great deal of politics behind it, and it is interesting to get the perspectives on Hoover and Roosevelt. What is interesting about Hoover is that when he was elected, if a Depression was to happen, you would have figured him as a top draft pick to fix that problem. However...more
Somewhat of a disappointment,
the book is mostly about the political infighting that occurred in Washington DC.
A thousand names of long forgotten bureaucrats.
The title refers to the American people,
but ironically the book is about the "forgotten" bureaucrats.
I did learn that in 1923 the supreme court ruled that minimum wage laws were unconstitutional.
They interfered with the relationship of a worker and his employer.
A latter group of politicians sitting on the high court changed that.
One mo...more
the book is mostly about the political infighting that occurred in Washington DC.
A thousand names of long forgotten bureaucrats.
The title refers to the American people,
but ironically the book is about the "forgotten" bureaucrats.
I did learn that in 1923 the supreme court ruled that minimum wage laws were unconstitutional.
They interfered with the relationship of a worker and his employer.
A latter group of politicians sitting on the high court changed that.
One mo...more
This was an interesting if a little unfocused book. Generally it was critical of FDR's erratic attacks on business and his tendency to jump from issue to issue with no clear agenda. The book also attacks the 'Brain Trust' and other intellectuals that were so prevalent in FDR's first term.
The final, vague, conclusion is that academics, anti-business interests (left leaning liberals), and an unfocused administration deepened and lengthened the depression.
Shlaes also acknowledges the issue of tarif...more
The final, vague, conclusion is that academics, anti-business interests (left leaning liberals), and an unfocused administration deepened and lengthened the depression.
Shlaes also acknowledges the issue of tarif...more
I've decided 3 stars for me will mean a book that I enjoy but that I wouldn't pester others to read.
The Forgotten Man is about the Great Depression but not from the standpoint of the average Joe. For that story, see my review of The Worst Hard Times. This is a story of those at the top who either made the decisions on how to handle the Depression through policy or opposed them. The man that the title refers to is the one who is eager to take a risk in order to get a reward, the "adventurer" as t...more
The Forgotten Man is about the Great Depression but not from the standpoint of the average Joe. For that story, see my review of The Worst Hard Times. This is a story of those at the top who either made the decisions on how to handle the Depression through policy or opposed them. The man that the title refers to is the one who is eager to take a risk in order to get a reward, the "adventurer" as t...more
This book is marketed as "A History", when in fact, it is a pro-right-wing set of talking points. The right/conservative wing in American politics has never liked FDR or his policies. They didn't like FDR in 1932 or 1940 or 1950 or 1960 or any day of any year since the day FDR got the Democratic nomination for the presidency. The author, Amity Shales, trained as a journalist. Her job before writing this book was as a Wall Street Journal editorial writer. The book she has written is best seen as...more
This is a somewhat polarizing book, being a more conservative look at the 1930s that does not provide the usual enthusiastic view of FDR and the New Deal that one gets in school and mainstream media. And unlike the rash of "people's histories" that are so prevalent now, it doesn't focus on the "common man" during the depression.
Shlaes looks at the backgrounds and policies of Roosevelt, Hoover, Willkie, and many of the members of Roosevelt's brain trust. I enjoyed the fresh look at the era and th...more
Shlaes looks at the backgrounds and policies of Roosevelt, Hoover, Willkie, and many of the members of Roosevelt's brain trust. I enjoyed the fresh look at the era and th...more
The book/audiobook opens with a vibrant vignette from first-person accounts, told from the perspective of the folks living through the events. This very much excited me for the rest of the book, leading me to expect the same, novel first-person perspective throughout. Oh how let down I was when I realized that the book's opening vignette would be the ONLY time such a visceral perspective would be used.
Shlaes proceeds to tell a rather rather tedious tale of the events of the depression from the p...more
Shlaes proceeds to tell a rather rather tedious tale of the events of the depression from the p...more
Revisionist history at its best
This is the story of a power struggle, not between good and evil, but between two parts of the United State economy, with a mix of good and evil that affected results and motivation. The struggle was between the public and private sector for an 11 year period between 1929 and 40. By the end, the dominance of the public sector was assured. The Forgotten Man is an new attempt to understand why the 1930’s were an economic disaster for the United States, why the Great...more
This is the story of a power struggle, not between good and evil, but between two parts of the United State economy, with a mix of good and evil that affected results and motivation. The struggle was between the public and private sector for an 11 year period between 1929 and 40. By the end, the dominance of the public sector was assured. The Forgotten Man is an new attempt to understand why the 1930’s were an economic disaster for the United States, why the Great...more
What I learned from this book was how FDR's "braintrust" was primarily made up of "fellow travelers" - people who were sympathetic to Communism and admired Stalin. These people were the source of so much of the "New Deal." Ideas such as shareholder value were ephemeral to them - they destroyed an estimated $500M by expanding the TVA and stealing market share from the shareholder-owned utilities. Fortunately the Supreme Court invalidated much of what was done and people began to recognize the los...more
This is a timely book to read. The author takes us by the hand through the late 20's, the 30's and spills into the 40's. Each chapter starts out with the date, the unemployment rate, and the Dow Jones average. Laced into these chapters in a facinating story of the actions and thoughts of the policy makers, advisors, and the presidents (Hoover and Roosevelt) during this awful time. One learns that cynisism was not invented in the 60's. If one is interested in macro economics, policy tools, populi...more
Sep 30, 2009
Peter Namtvedt
rated it
4 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
student of economics and of American history
I begin with clues about the title.
Seven months before the presidential election of 1932, the man who would turn out to be the winner spoke these words:
These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power, for plans like those of 1917 that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
-Gov. FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT OF...more
Seven months before the presidential election of 1932, the man who would turn out to be the winner spoke these words:
These unhappy times call for the building of plans that rest upon the forgotten, the unorganized but the indispensable units of economic power, for plans like those of 1917 that build from the bottom up and not from the top down, that put their faith once more in the forgotten man at the bottom of the economic pyramid.
-Gov. FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT OF...more
This book had the potential to be great, given the subject matter and the timeliness. The thesis is that, contrary to the conventional wisdom, the New Deal did not end the Great Depression and in fact did much to exacerbate it. The first part is uncontroversial. I think everyone agrees that WWII, not the New Deal, ended the Depression. the second part is interesting: Shlaes does show how some programs were harmful and ideologically driven, and probably did more harm than good in terms of ending...more
Whenever George Will calls any book a must read, I know exactly what to expect. As an alternative narrative to the Great Depression, it's worth the read. The "Forgotten Man" is still overlooked, however. The critiques of liberalism are noteworthy and worth pondering; but the underlying argument - which casts a pall on intellectualism (ironically using a high academic tone that does a poor job of trying to sound unbiased) and relies on the same old Randian stereotypes of poverty, the poor, and th...more
I was very disappointed by the book, but is based on a play on words between a reference to the poor or the middle class in the name "forgotten man". There are, of course, bases for both references. The point here is to argue that the policies of the New Deal made what would have been a typical recession much worse and turned it into a depression. A highlight is that retrenchment and budget balancing of 1937, which appeared to lead to a double dip depression that was not relieved until WWII. The...more
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Amity Shlaes graduated from Yale University magna cum laude with a bachelor’s degree in English in 1982.
Shlaes wrote columns for the Financial Times for five years, until September, 2005. Earlier, she worked at the Wall Street Journal, where she was a member of the editorial board.
Presently, Shlaes writes a syndicated column for Bloomberg News. She is a senior fellow in economic history at the Cou...more
More about Amity Shlaes...
Shlaes wrote columns for the Financial Times for five years, until September, 2005. Earlier, she worked at the Wall Street Journal, where she was a member of the editorial board.
Presently, Shlaes writes a syndicated column for Bloomberg News. She is a senior fellow in economic history at the Cou...more
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“Who is the forgotten man...? I know him as intimately as my own undershirt. He is the fellow that is trying to get along without public relief... In the meantime the taxpayers go on supporting many that would not work if they had jobs.”
—
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Mar 15, 2013 08:50pm