With budget deficits and the national debt in the news all the time, I thought I'd do a little reading to get caught up. The book starts at the beginning of the country and follow the national debt through the years, explaining its ups and downs and offering mini bios along the way. It helped put the debt into perspective for me. It also made me a little depressed. This book was published in 1997, and the author ends the book on an optimistic note, but many of the things he warns about are happening right now, this month, this week, and it's worrisome, to say the least. After reading this, I'm more concerned about the budget deficit than the national debt because the problems are more immediate. I wonder if we'll ever elect a politician gutsy enough to tackle these problems head on. I kind of don't think so. Nevertheless, it's a readable book, and I think I'll look into some of his other more recent books.