Since Yesterday: The 1930's in America, September 3, 1929 to September 3, 1939 |
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Since Yesterday: The 1930's in America, September 3, 1929 to September 3, 1939
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by Frederick L. Allen
Sales Rank: 323140
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$6.88
At Amazon
on 6-18-2008.
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Features
Cover Type: Paperback with 400 pages
Published by: Harper Perennial July 16, 1986
Written in: English
ISBN 10 Number: 0060913223
ISBN 13 Number: 978-0060913229
Book Dimensions:
8 x 5.3 x 0.9 inches
Weighs: 11.4 ounces
Book Description
"Vividly and with great skills he marshals the men, the mountebanks, the measures, and the events of ten years of American life and causes them to march before us in orderly panathenaic procession."--Saturday Review
About The Author
Frederick Lewis Allen was born in Boston in 1890 and graduated from Harvard in 1912. He served on the editorial staffs of the Atlantic Monthly and Century magazines and was editor in chief of Harper's magazine from 1941 until his death in 1954
Reader Reviews
Frederick Lewis Allen begins this short book (346 pages) where he left off in his last book (Only Yesterday) - with the stock market crash of 1929 - and ends it with the advent of World War II in 1939. Allen skillfully weaves the minor events of this decade (the fads, books, crimes, machines, gadgets, personalities, movies, fashions, etc.) together with the major events (the stock market crash, the Great Depression, and the New Deal) in a delightfully entertaining, informative fashion - assuming, of course, that you enjoy American history! The '29 crash had been immediately preceded by the Big Bull market that had carried investors and stocks onward and upward for some 2 years before it finally peaked. Investors, by then, were programmed to buy, buy, buy. All feared that they might miss one last opportunity to get richer. Stock transactions sometimes became so hectic that Wall Street could not keep up with the paperwork (no computers!). Some pundits of that day were issuing warnings that stock prices were overvalued, that investors were investing too much borrowed money, but few investors were heeding these warnings. When stock prices began falling, nothing could stop them. By the time stock values hit bottom on 13 November investors had lost enough money to finance World War I once, or pay off the national debt twice! In a matter of months 25% of the work force was unemployed; many of them were now standing in the ubiquitous breadlines, or peddling apples for 5 cents on street corners. The market crash triggered another major event of the 30s - the great depression. President Hoover insisted that the economy was only experiencing one of those cyclical business cycles, that it would eventually self-correct, and that life in America would again be just great. He approved some actions to aid businessmen and failing banks, and to create some jobs by expanding some federal work programs, but basically Hoover opposed any kind of relief for the unemployed or their families. The government, he thought, should do nothing to damage Americans initiative and rugged individualism. Later, Hoover approved some expenditures for seed and for animal feed, but vetoed any proposals to help the cold, the starving, or the unemployed. Hoover was above all determined to balance the federal budget and he was certain that nature (and economic problems) would eventually run its course and that his hands off (laissez-faire) economic policy would prove to be the proper government response to the depression. Between the crash of 29 and the presidential election of 1932, however, there was no visible improvement in the economy. Consequently, Hoovers defeat in the upcoming 1932 election was preordained. Thats what happened; Franklin Delano Roosevelt became president. FDR and Hoover had diametrically opposed views with regard to the federal governments role vis-à-vis the national economy and the depression. Once elected FDR immediately launched his various (alphabet soup-like) New Deal programs: they included the NRA (to deal with economic planning, wages and working conditions, child and womens labor, etc.), the CWA and the WPA (to provide jobs); the AAA (to deal with farm problems); the CCC (to provide jobs related to environmental protection, tree planting, etc.); the PWA and the TWA (to build dams - thereby creating jobs, electricity, water for irrigation, flood controls, etc.). He also created the RFC, the FHA, the FCA, the NYA, etc., etc. FDR was unafraid to create a government agency to deal with a problem. If one approach fails (frequently the case), he would say, Well try another. The unemployed, he maintained, are not bums! They are victims of an economy over which they have no control. (A 1933 congressional investigation - a la Enron, Anderson, et al) indicated that the crash had to a considerable extent been generated by wheeling-dealing brokers, bankers, financiers, corporate managers and their pyramiding schemes, mergers, etc.). FDRs role model cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, had said earlier that it was the governments responsibility to protect those who were unable to protect themselves. FDR, in turn, said something similar, using different words: It is not the governments duty to further enrich those who already have much, but, rather, to assist those who have little. FDRs words resonated with most Americans. They re-elected him again, again, and again. The Republicans soon recognized that FDR and his Democratic New Deal programs were basically anathema to what Republicans stood for (small federal government, low taxes, etc.), and they began fighting FDR and his programs (the Democratic-Republican fight that FDR started continues to this day.), but FDR won most of the battles because he always enjoyed great majorities in both houses of congress and eventually he also had a friendly Supreme Court - because he personally made a total of 9 appointments to the court. There is much more to say about this book, about FDRs struggle with those 9 old men of the Supreme Court, about the repeal of Prohibition, about the rise of organized crime, etc., -- but you get the idea. My final word: Lewis is a delightful writer and the material is fascinating!
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Since Yesterday: The 1930's in America, September 3, 1929 to September 3, 1939
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Price: $6.88
Updated on 6-18-2008.
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