内容简介
在线阅读本书
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.
编辑推荐
From Publishers Weekly
This breezy narrative comes from the pen of a veteran journalist and economics reporter. Rather than telling a new story, she tells an old one (scarcely lacking for historians) in a fresh way. Shlaes brings to the tale an emphasis on economic realities and consequences, especially when seen from the perspective of monetarist theory, and a focus on particular individuals and events, both celebrated and forgotten (at least relatively so). Thus the spotlight plays not only on Andrew Mellon, Wendell Wilkie and Rexford Tugwell but also on Father Divine and the Schechter brotherskosher butcher wholesalers prosecuted by the federal National Recovery Administration for selling "sick chickens." As befits a former writer for the Wall Street Journal, Shlaes is sensitive to the dangers of government intervention in the economybut also to the danger of the government's not intervening. In her telling, policymakers of the 1920s weren't so incompetent as they're often made out to beeveryone in the 1930s was floundering and all made errorsand WWII, not the New Deal, ended the Depression. This is plausible history, if not authoritative, novel or deeply analytical. It's also a thoughtful, even-tempered corrective to too often unbalanced celebrations of FDR and his administration's pathbreaking policies. 16 pages of bw photos. (June 12)
Copyright Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Its duration and depth made the Depression "Great," and Shlaes, a prominent conservative economics journalist, considers why a decade of government intervention ameliorated but never tamed it. With vitality uncommon for an economics history, Shlaes chronicles the projects of Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt as well as these projects' effect on those who paid for them. Reminding readers that the reputedly do-nothing Hoover pulled hard on the fiscal levers (raising tariffs, increasing government spending), Shlaes nevertheless emphasizes that his enthusiasm for intervention paled against the ebullient FDR's glee in experimentation. She focuses closely on the influence of his fabled Brain Trust, her narrative shifting among Raymond Moley, Rexford Tugwell, and other prominent New Dealers. Businesses that litigated their resistance to New Deal regulations attract Shlaes' attention, as do individuals who coped with the despair of the 1930s through self-help, such as Alcoholics Anonymous cofounder Bill Wilson. The book culminates in the rise of Wendell Willkie, and Shlaes' accent on personalities is an appealing avenue into her skeptical critique of the New Deal. Gilbert Taylor
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Review
"Entertaining, illuminating, and exceedingly fair. . . . A rich, wonderfully original, and extremely textured history of an important time. -- The American Spectator--This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Review
"Entertaining, illuminating, and exceedingly fair. . . . A rich, wonderfully original, and extremely textured history of an important time. (The American Spectator )
"The Forgotten Man is an incisive and controversial history of the Great Depression that challenges much of the received wisdom." (Harold Evans, author of The American Century and They Made America )
"Americans need what Shlaes has brilliantly supplied, a fresh appraisal of what the New Deal did and did not accomplish." (George F. Will )
"Shlaes's account of The Great Depression goes beyond the familiar arguments of liberals and conservatives." (William Kristol, Editor of The Weekly Standard )
"Amity Shlaes's fast-paced review of the [Depression] helps enormously in putting it all in perspective." (Paul Volcker )
"Shlaes's chronicle of a fascinating era reads like a novel and brings a new perspective on political villains and heros." (Arthur Levitt )
"Amity Shlaes is among the most brilliant of the young writers who are transforming American financial journalism." (Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times )
"The Forgotten Man offers an understanding of the era's politics and economics that may be unprecedented in its clarity." (Mark Helprin )
作者简介
Amity Shlaes is a senior fellow in economic history at the Council on Foreign Relations and a syndicated columnist at Bloomberg. She has written for The Financial Times and The Wall Street Journal, where she was an editorial board member, as well as for The New Yorker, Fortune, National Review, The New Republic, and Foreign Affairs. Shlaes is the author of The Greedy Hand. She lives in New York.
| 出版社 | Harper Perennial |
|---|---|
| 作者 | Amity Shlaes |