About this title: This striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression looks at the neglected and moving stories of individual Americans, and shows how they had helped to establish the steadfast character that has developed a nation.
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Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Pimlico
Date Published: 2009
ISBN-13:9780712639965ISBN:0712639969
Description: Very Good. VERY GOOD OVERALL CONDITION-TRUSTED DEVON (UK) BASED SELLER-IN STOCK-SENT WITHIN 1 WORKING DAY-AVAILABLE BY EMAIL FOR QUERIES-NO QUIBBLE REFUND IF NOT COMPLETELY SATISFIED- read more
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Acceptable. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date Published: 2007-06-01
ISBN-13:9780066211701ISBN:0066211700
Description: Good. Dust jacket has edge bumping and slight shelf wear. Rough area inside cover. Gift inscription on title page. Text unmarked, pages clean and bright. *Ships Next Business day* read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: HarperLuxe
Date Published: 6/26/2007
ISBN-13:9780061285271ISBN:0061285277
Description: Fine. 0061285277 NEW/UNREAD! ! ! Text is Clean and Unmarked! --Be Sure to Compare Seller Feedback and Ratings before Purchasing--Has a small black line on bottom/exterior edge of pages. May have light shelf wear to cover from storage, if any. read more
Description: Very Good. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: HarperLuxe
Date Published: 6/26/2007
ISBN-13:9780061285271ISBN:0061285277
Description: Fine. 0061285277 Back cover is creased. Ships Within 24 Hours. Excellent Customer Service. Upto 15 Days 100% Money Back Gurantee. Try Our Fast! ! ! ! Shipping With Tracking Number. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: HarperCollins
Date Published: 2007-06-01
ISBN-13:9780066211701ISBN:0066211700
Description: Very Good. Spine tight and intact with bumps top and bottom. Covers with moderate wear-dust jacket with moderate shelf wear. Pages clean and intact! read more
Edition: Book Club Edition.
Binding: Hardcover.
Publisher: N.Y. : HarperCollins
Date Published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780066211701ISBN:0066211700
Description: Fine/Near Fine. Dust Jacket. 8vo. Illustrated. Very light wear at DJ flap folds. "Rejecting the old emphasis on the New Deal, the author turns to the neglected and moving stories of individual Americans, and shows how through brave leadership they helped establish the steadfast character we developed as a nation. " (from the DJ) Andrew Mellon, Sam Insull of Chicago, the Schechters of Brooklyn, Bill W. of Alcoholics Anonymous, and a black charismatic Father Divine, among the most notable. The ... read more
"Revisionist history at its best This is the story of a power struggle, not between good and evil, but between two parts of the United State economy, with a mix of good and evil that affected results and motivation. The struggle was between the public and private sector for an 11 year period between 1929 and 40. By the end, the dominance of the public sector was assured. The Forgotten Man is an new attempt to understand why the 1930's were an economic disaster for the United States, why the Great Depression lasted 11 years, and why it was great in the USA, when it was a mere Depression in other parts of the industrialized world. It is also the story of over 20 characters whom played a role in this power struggle, who range from mere innocent victim, to a twisted actor in the struggle.
Amity Shales, an economic historian and writer, has attempted a revisionist history of the best sort. Her aims are to reassess the assumptions that have gathered around the Great Depression time period, including ideological motivations that are themselves revisionist history. Her method, focusing on individual characters like Mellon, Tugwell, Ickes, Wilkie and Roosevelt in order to show how a thousand small choices, often barely understood at the time, led to events that were really unforeseen. What Roosevelt understood was the power of government to systematically reorganize people and economy. What his opponents did not really grasp was how to appeal to people outside of individual self interest.
Shales hammered home in this book the high unemployment rate that never went down, throughout the 1930's, and that the stock market did not go back to 1929 levels until the mid 1950's. Economic downturns building on themselves, and the power of government intervention to suck out available capital from businesses that wanted to grow greatly slowed any attempt for investors, small and large. The rise of the TVA, and how it effectively shut down the nascent private power distribution and generation, and why that became publicly popular in the Southern states demonstrates as well as anything else in this book why time after time, the public came to believe that centralized government direction was better than decentralized action, even on the state level.
The rise of appealing to special interest groups, from seniors, to ethnic minorities, to certain economic workers, in a systemized way from the top level of government, was something new and radical in American history. This is where the forgotten man came from, that the very idea of liberal changed from an individual out on his own, to groups, which needed centralized government planning to survive.
What really sets this book apart is the way it emphases not necessarily the struggle between the public and the private sector, but its effects on the forgotten ones, the members of society who had no political constituency, who had no real work, but became largely pawns. The American economy was truly nationalized at this time, so instead of forgotten people being part of a local community's struggle, their numbers seemed to increase, and they always increased, exponentially.
The writing here is engaging, and it does flow well. Some have criticized the side characters of the book, people like the Al Sharpton-like Father Divine, or the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, but those characters are the point really, beyond the machinations of Roosevelt. How leaders arose, usually unsuccessfully, to speak for the forgotten men, is really the story of this book. The central representative of the forgotten men was Wendall Wilkie, a power company executive who grew to oppose Roosevelt and the New Deal. Wilkie's role, and why it failed, across the 30's could have been fleshed out a bit more, but otherwise the point was made. Shales's work is highly recommend for anyone, especially in 2009, who is trying to understand the role that an experimental public sector has on forces that a centralized state cannot possibly understand."
"Thorough history of the people and events leading up to and throughout the Great Depression. Author argues for free markets throughout book, taking issue with both Republican and Democrat policies that obstructed free trade. These included protectionist tariffs, public utilities where government subsidizes made a public-private cost comparison difficult, and programs involving collectivization. FDR is portrayed as a president with a strong grasp of creating dependent constituencies (farmers, labor, those receiving social security), but little understanding of how his policies impacted the economic health of the country. The forgotten man is the one who gets by without government handouts. This is a long but rewarding book. Given the current economic climate, this book can provide a helpful contrasting point-of-view, with history as a backdrop."
"I like the book because it taught me more about people who are policymakers who wanted to fight for a aquedate economy. In this story, the plot takes place during the 1930s around the time of the Great Depression. At the time, many people suffered from poverty and hunger. The narrative of the story talked about how women and men were struggling with maintaining a stability economy in America. Also, in the book, it talked about the situation at the time of the The Great Depression. Many people either blamed themselves for the bad economy and on other factors such as businessmen spending too much money and not knowing how to profit and gain. The author who wrote this book, Amity Shlaes was a reported who lived through the Great Depression. From her experiences, she put her knowledge into the book during the time in which the Great Depression took place in."
"Excellent book. This is not a quick read but it is excellent. Amity Shlaes wrote this prescient book in 2006. It is eery to read about depressed home values, anti-Wall Street sentiment, tax increases, increased government, job loss, and it all takes place in the 1930's.
Shlaes gives interesting details about the personalities of the men and women who influenced FDR. She describes the policies put in place that expanded government and alienated business covering 1927 through 1940 without too many statistics. I never realized how individual businessmen were mercilessly targeted by the Depart of Justice. This included Andrew Mellon who gave our country the National Gallery of Art. (Mellon was an interesting duck--I am going to find a good biography about him.)
The forgotten man is the man who works hard to stay off government assistance but continues to get stuck with the bill bailing out everyone else. Regardless of your opinion about our current economic situation and government policies this is worth reading and thinking about."
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