“One of the most dangerous aspects of the new order: great numbers of talented men and women spend their days and nights thinking only of statements about cigarettes, deodorants, sanitary paper, automobiles and movie actresses,” Josephson wrote in a typical passage. “The progressive cultural stupefaction of such a numerous educated class is itself a major tragedy.” That article was published on June 5, 1929, when the stock market was on one of its last sprints. By 1930 such rueful sentiments were starting to appear everywhere in the press.
