“1929” by Andrew Ross Sorkin - my review:
I received this book as a Christmas present, purchased from my ‘letter to Santa’ after having heard the author interviewed on the radio. Like many, I knew “of” 1929 and the basics around what happened. And through the book, I was looking to get the ‘under-the-surface’ story of where and how things went wrong, leading to our nation’s worst-ever economic fallout. To me, while the book provides a decent outline of events and basic portraits of many of its central players, it felt lacking in dimension and explanation. Part, I think, is that I was expecting a little more exposition a la Michael Lewis in “The Big Short” where he breaks down the types of transactions that led to the 2008 mortgage debacle. In 1929, there was some of this, but it seemed to remain more generalized (e.g., people borrowed on margin, then margin calls came) and not devote much explanation to the specific mechanics or trace the series of dominos across interconnected systems. To me, those details are a big part of the story. Another is that the author was clearly working to put flesh-and-bones on the players, but I stepped away with fairly flat and almost homogeneous caricatures of the ‘rich Wall Street elites’, (though I did appreciate the greater dimensionality provided to the political players like Coolidge, Hoover, FDR, and Glass). But at its end, the story seemed to be about financiers, politicians, and journalists – curiously absent in any detail were the ‘common man’. References were made, but almost always in the aggregate - and to me, a big part of the story of 1929 was how far reaching and all down the economic ladder the participation was had and felt (for decade+). Bottom line: I did appreciate reading, but felt key pieces were missing and therefore had a lingering feeling of being unsatisfied. (Side note: I should mention the last 100-150 pages are end notes - the book was thoroughly researched and referenced.)
