Synopses & Reviews
It's difficult today to imagine how America survived the Great Depression. Only through the stories of the common people who struggled during that era can we really understand how the nation endured. In
The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression. Rejecting the old emphasis on the New Deal, she turns to the neglected and moving stories of individual Americans, and shows how they helped establish the steadfast character we developed as a nation.
Shlaes also traces the mounting agony of the New Dealers themselves as they discovered their errors. She shows how both Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt failed to understand the prosperity of the 1920s and heaped massive burdens on the country that more than offset the benefit of New Deal programs. The real question about the Depression, she argues, is not whether Roosevelt ended it with World War II. It is why the Depression lasted so long. From 1929 to 1940, federal intervention helped to make the Depression great — in part by forgetting the men and women who sought to help one another.
The Forgotten Man offers a new look at one of the most important periods in our history, allowing us to understand the strength of American character today.
Review
"Shlaes...brings to the Great Depression a flair for revealing anecdotes and a debater's moxie that slides into contrarianism....Plucky, intellectual combat, but Shlaes neglects to counter the most telling arguments about GOP responsibility for the Depression." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Many histories have been written about the Great Depression....But Amity Shlaes' new book stands head and shoulders above previous efforts..." Steve Forbes, Forbes Magazine
Synopsis
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.
Synopsis
In The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes, one of the nation's most-respected economic commentators, offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression. She traces the mounting agony of the New Dealers and the moving stories of individual citizens who through their brave perseverance helped establish the steadfast character we recognize as American today.
About the Author
Amity Shlaes writes a syndicated column for Bloomberg View and directs the Four Percent Growth Project at the George W. Bush Presidential Center. She is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The Forgotten Man and The Greedy Hand. Shlaes chairs the jury of the Manhattan Institute's Hayek Book Prize and has won both the Hayek and the Bastiat Prize for Journalism. She is a trustee of the Calvin Coolidge Memorial Foundation.