1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation (Andrew Ross Sorkin)

In 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History–and How It Shattered a Nation, author Andrew Ross Sorkin retells the story of one of America’s greatest financial catastrophes. This book places the reader on the trading floor as the speculative boom of the mid-twenties collapses and the nation faces the onset of the Great Depression. Sorkin draws on newly accessible documents and minutes from board meetings to chart how debt, overconfidence, and poor governance combined to bring about the stock market crash. Sorkin traces the stories of several individuals, such as Sunshine Charley, throughout the market freefall and its aftermath.

The book’s fast pace also stretches beyond 1929, covering the run-up to the market crash and subsequent aftermath with equal treatment. While many argue the crash signaled the start of the Great Depression, Sorkin points out that it was just one signal of many that contributed to the financial disaster that gripped the world for much of the 1930’s. German debt, tariff protectionism, and a general carefree attitude to regulation all added fuel to the fire. Sorkin traces the bad decisions made by many both inside and outside of government in contributing to the financial mess that occurred nearly 100 years ago. 

1929 is a timely reminder that cycles of speculation repeat themselves (think .com bubble, the real estate pop in the 2000’s, and the meme stock bubble just several years ago) and that the belief that “this time is different” can spectacularly backfire. Sorkin has produced both a cautionary tale and a richly textured history. For anyone interested in markets, power, or the forces that shape economic collapse, this book warrants a place on the shelf.

MY RATING: 4.5

Mary Coin (Marisa Silver)

The Depression era photo of a woman with a hand on her face surrounded by her children is one of the most famous images ever taken.  Snapped by photographer Dorothea Lange in 1936, Migrant Mother shows a woman by the name of Florence Owens Thompson and is stunning in its stark simplicity.  In Marisa Silver's equally stunning novel Mary Coin, she reimagines the lives of the woman in the famous image and the photographer who took it.

Silver's story follows three fictional characters, Mary Coin, Vera Dare, and Walker Dodge.  Coin is a mother several times over who is just trying to do the best she can by her children during one of the darkest periods in American history.  Dare is having an equally hard time, attempting to reconcile her job of taking photographs of wealthy women with the depression that is happening outside her walls.  Walker is a professor of social history, and the reader is left guessing about how his story will eventually interact with Coin.

When Dare meets up with Coin and her children, she takes the photograph that eventually would become so famous.  Silver doesn't use Lange's and Thompson's real names in the novel, but her description of how the photo may have been taken is enthralling.  The professor's story seemed at times to be extraneous; I think the women's stories during the Great Depression and their lives thereafter would have been
enough to make this novel superb.

MY RATING - 4