The Wall Street crash of October 1929 stands as a milestone in American financial history that surpasses all others. The panics and crashes that preceded it are lost in popular history; those that have followed it are constantly compared against it the way geologic events are compared with the August 1883 Krakatoa eruption or the April 1906 San Francisco earthquake.
In a similar manner, the books written about the 1929 Crash all spend some time examining the popular culture of the age. The sense of easy money is a frequent topic; what review of the age doesn't mention John J. Raskob's "Everybody Ought to be Rich" magazine article? The day-by-day events of that October are also popular material for these histories. These are offered as a means of contrast with our own less frenzied or more sophisticated age. When the 'twenties are contrasted too strongly with the present, it can lure us into a complacency; we can see how the sins of the past led to the downfall, but, as we are not guilty of such greed and passion, no such calamity awaits us. History has proved this wrong many times.
John Brooks, however, has a more subtle eye. His narrative does not stress the extraordinary nature of that age, although he discusses some of the major figures of the era. His narrative encompasses the economic forces that imposed changes on the nation and the social changes that marked a permanent turning in the society's mores and viewpoint. Further, Brooks covers the period more fully: from the 1920 bomb that exploded at lunchtime on Wall Street to the Pecora hearings and Richard Whitney entering Sing Sing in 1938. In fact, Whitney becomes the central character in the history and his personal fall chronicles the falling away of the old elite and its replacement by a new generation. When seen from this view, the 1920s are not extraordinary or distinct from later years, they are the time when the attitudes of our era first emerged.
This book is very highly recommended.
