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Title: The Great Depression : America 1929-1941 by Robert S. McElvaine ISBN: 0-8129-2327-8 Publisher: Three Rivers Press Pub. Date: 06 December, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $16.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.6 (5 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Terrific Overview Of The Great Depression Of The 193Os
Comment: 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 1930s, which, as noted historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. Notes, "does justice to the social and cultural dimensions of economic crisis as well as to its political and economic impact." Here we take a busman's tour into a world literally turned upside down by the massive and systematic economic dislocations that suddenly arose in the late 1920s.
Moreover, this is a quite fair-minded and scrupulously researched effort that imaginatively recreates the amazing social, economic, and political conditions of the Great Depression for the reader in a most entertaining and edifying way. Today it is difficult, especially for younger readers, to understand just how traumatic and dangerous the crisis in democracy that the events surrounding the Great Depression were, not only in this country, but also in all of the constitutional democracies of the west. To the minds of many fair-minded Americans, the capitalist system had failed, and it was the man in the street with his family who bore the cruelest brunt of this failure. Millions were set adrift, and everywhere ordinary human beings were stripped of their possessions, their livelihood, and their dignity as thousands and then millions of businesses and enterprises went bankrupt.
For a time it appeared the government itself would lost the confidence of the people, and that civil order would be sacrificed along with all of the material dispossessions millions had already suffered. Socialism and even communism flourished as alternative answers in academic circles, and no one seemed sure or even confident that the system could be saved or resurrected as it continued to fail. The rise from the ashes of the Great Depression was uncertain, fitful, and quite painful, and only the advent of the circumstances surrounding the Second World War really cured the economic ills that Americans struggled with in those times. The fact that we seem to have forgotten the fact that capitalism is a god that can and does fail is worrying to the author, and he examines some of the dangerous and misguided tacit assumptions of contemporary politicians such as the supply side "voodoo" economics of Ronald Reagan's administration.
I found the book to be a valuable aid in understanding how ordinary Americans, forged in the crucible of hard times and make-do, were given the character, self-reliance, and native ability to improvise that so influenced our conduct in the Second World War. Many scholars attribute our military success to the brilliant efforts by our young company and platoon leaders both in Europe and in the Pacific with providing the decisive ingredient to win the war in terms of the hand-to-hand combat. As David Kennedy argues so persuasively in "Freedom From Fear" (see my review), it was the young Americans whose characters were forged in the hard times of the Great Depression who so the moral courage and strength of character to rise up from their foxholes to win the Second World War. This is a wonderful book, and I highly recommend it.
Rating: 5
Summary: Bias is Part of History
Comment: To those that were disappointed in this book because it was biased, I have news for you. Every historian has a "slant." It directs our research, our writing, our outline. You must approach every history book with this in mind. If you don't find bias in a history book, you probally agree with the historian's "slant." With this said, I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.
Rating: 1
Summary: Terrible Book
Comment: I know specific events in this book that are very biased torward the African American's in this period, if you are looking for a book that is more factually correct and sound... I would recommend The Great Deppression: America in the 1930s by T.H. Watkins... it is much better
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Title: Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression by Studs Terkel ISBN: 1565846567 Publisher: New Press Pub. Date: November, 2000 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: The Great Crash 1929 by John Kenneth Galbraith ISBN: 0395859999 Publisher: Mariner Books Pub. Date: 30 April, 1997 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: The Perils of Prosperity 1914-1932 (Chicago History of American Civilization) by William E. Leuchtenburg, Daniel J. Boorstin ISBN: 0226473716 Publisher: University of Chicago Press Pub. Date: September, 1993 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: The Hungry Years: A Narrative History of the Great Depression in America by T. H. Watkins ISBN: 0805065067 Publisher: Owl Books Pub. Date: September, 2000 List Price(USD): $17.00 |
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Title: Since Yesterday : The 1930's in America, September 3, 1929 to September 3, 1939 by Frederick L. Allen ISBN: 0060913223 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 16 July, 1986 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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