A forceful, cogent, and advanced reconsideration of the relationship between Black Monday and the Depression.
A nonfiction book investigates the causes of the Great Depression.
In his 1930 work, Treatise on Money, John Maynard Keynes wrote: “I attribute the slump of 1930 primarily to the deterrent effects on investment of the long period of dear money which preceded the stock market collapse and only secondarily to the collapse itself.” In this densely researched volume, Harvey and Keil interrogate this common view, grounding their research in what they refer to as the “evidentiary treasure trove” of the exhaustive records of the IRS Statistical Section’s annual Statistics of Income, which presented them with “an aggregate corporate balance sheet for year-end 1929, comprising tabulated statistics from 398, 815 corporate tax filings submitted for that year.” Intensely detailed primary records like these allowed the authors to extend their historical inquiry beyond the reach of what earlier writers on the Depression could access. John Kenneth Galbraith, for instance, writing in 1955, could assert that “the great stock market crash can be much more readily explained than the depression that followed it.” But Harvey and Keil use comprehensive data in order to provide “statistically incontrovertible evidence” of how and why the Depression is linked to the stock market crash of 1929. The key to their research isn’t the crash itself but the massive movement of the public to repay or pay down debt in the succeeding years, which crushed consumption, flattened markets, and stalled the economy into a Depression that lasted for a decade.
The series opener is lucidly written and presents its prodigious research with the help of generous footnotes and an extensive listing of references. The authors have a complicated and innovative theory to advance regarding the exact financial mechanisms that brought on the Depression, and they carefully and meticulously lay out their case that it was consumer behavior that exacerbated market losses. “It was clear that, for the indebted, debt repayment following the Crash became top priority over consumption, especially consumption that depended on more borrowing,” they write. “With this observation about debtor behavior, we discovered data that confirmed our observation substantially.” Their analysis is extremely in-depth and recondite; despite their best efforts, it’s unlikely that nonspecialists will be able to follow the finer points of the case they make through all its aggregate corporate tax tables and compound-earnings tables. Those readers will nevertheless appreciate the authors’ historical insights, as when they come to the defense of the man typically vilified for the Depression: Herbert Hoover. “Is it fair to characterize Hoover’s principles as flawed,” they ask, “when he was so capable and masterful in overseeing the development of analyses and plans for getting America out of the Great Depression?” When writing about the progression of borrowing by brokerage customers as the 1920s advanced, Harvey and Keil paint a realistic portrait of a more complicated interconnection of consumerism and the market, where demand led supply and therefore the great market crash at decade’s end became a sledgehammer blow to an already overstrained system. This makes for a formidably challenging reading experience that will most reward those who share at least something of the authors’ extensive specialized knowledge.
A forceful, cogent, and advanced reconsideration of the relationship between Black Monday and the Depression.Pub Date: Aug. 12, 2024
ISBN: 9798991073400
Page Count: 390
Publisher: Four Directions Press
Review Posted Online: Nov. 6, 2025
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
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