Rating: 
Summary: Wha' Happ'n?
Review: "No era ever vanished so suddenly, so completely, as the
twenties." -- -- David Dempsey, _New York Times_, Feb 15, 1970This is a quick run-through of the Crash, with a little pop-sociology about America in the Twenties. It's eerie, reading quotes from bankers, politicians, and brokers from the months before the Crash, about how the market had become so modernized and shockproof that panics were now impossible. Sounds familiar... New York Times financial columnist Alexander Noyes is a primary source in this book. It is fascinating, watching these titanic events being filtered daily through this not-stupid man's pen. We've heard more than 70 years of second-guessing about the Crash by now, so it is interesting seeing how it was taken point-blank by analysts at the time. In Maury Klein's account, the Crash is nobody's fault. Like Stanislaw Lec once said, every snowflake in an avanlanche pleads not guilty. Big brokers ostentatiously placed big orders, hoping to spur rallies. Consortia of financiers struggled to maintain public confidence in the market. President Herbert Hoover-who as a humanitarian first and failed President second was Jimmy Carter in reverse-tried to get Big Business together in a game plan to retrieve the situation. But in a free market, there is no one pulling levers and hauling cables controlling things. There was no one to stop the free market from going into freefall. Throughout the book are amusing little vignettes, like the man who sat smiling in his broker's office throughout Black Monday. His termagant wife wouldn't be able to nag him about the neighbors doing better in the market than him anymore...
Rating: 
Summary: Looking for Detail and Coming Up Short
Review: As someone who is interested in economics, financial markets, and business, the stock market crash of 1929-1932 has always grabbed my attention in those terms. As a result, my favorite book on the events leading up to the stock market melt down is John Kenneth Galbraith's famous book, The Great Crash 1929. Having recently reread that book to contemplate the stock market melt down of 1999-?, I was interested to see what lessons could be drawn from that experience to this one from reading this book. As a work of psychological history, Professor Klein was hampered by the lack of survey and sentiment indices. As a result, he relies a great deal on what prominent people had to say and what they did. As a result, the bulk of the material repeats what Galbraith covered. To this material are added thoughtful observations about trends in popular expenditures for automobiles, interest in sports (especially baseball), fads (such as flag-pole sitting), modern marketing (including advertising through movies and radio), and the acceptance of installment purchasing. He picks up a number of individuals who represent different "types" who experienced the stock market crash, to help us see how the effects varied from person to person. Groucho Marx saw himself lose money he could regain through future earnings, while others saw themselves wiped out for all time. Both Charley Mitchell (no relation) of National City Bank and Jesse Livermore provide cautionary tales. I was fascinated by Professor Klein's thoughts about how Herbert Hoover was caught in a dilemma between his desire to help and his strong feeling that government should be kept small. This notion of focusing on the psychological change though would apply much better to the Great Depression itself than to the stock market crash. Since I was a child, many people have told me about how the Depression changed their outlook on life. Whenever I asked them about the stock market crash as a cause of a changed perspective, they said it had no impact. As Professor Galbraith points out, the number of stock investors was less than 2 million in those days. The stock market crash was a background event for most people, albeit an important one since a very high percentage of consumer spending was done by the wealthiest people, as Professor Galbraith points out. Ultimately, this history has too little economic, financial, and business perspective to fully capture what this event means. I suspect that it will not be widely read, even though the information and the analysis are perfectly fine as far as they go. How can we modulate the swings in investment emotion that cause markets to rise too high . . . and fall too low? What will we lose if we do?
Rating: 
Summary: Shifts in American Psychology during 1918-30
Review: As someone who is interested in economics, financial markets, and business, the stock market crash of 1929-1932 has always grabbed my attention in those terms. As a result, my favorite book on the events leading up to the stock market melt down is John Kenneth Galbraith's famous book, The Great Crash 1929. Having recently reread that book to contemplate the stock market melt down of 1999-?, I was interested to see what lessons could be drawn from that experience to this one from reading this book.
As a work of psychological history, Professor Klein was hampered by the lack of survey and sentiment indices. As a result, he relies a great deal on what prominent people had to say and what they did. As a result, the bulk of the material repeats what Galbraith covered. To this material are added thoughtful observations about trends in popular expenditures for automobiles, interest in sports (especially baseball), fads (such as flag-pole sitting), modern marketing (including advertising through movies and radio), and the acceptance of installment purchasing. He picks up a number of individuals who represent different "types" who experienced the stock market crash, to help us see how the effects varied from person to person. Groucho Marx saw himself lose money he could regain through future earnings, while others saw themselves wiped out for all time. Both Charley Mitchell (no relation) of National City Bank and Jesse Livermore provide cautionary tales. I was fascinated by Professor Klein's thoughts about how Herbert Hoover was caught in a dilemma between his desire to help and his strong feeling that government should be kept small. This notion of focusing on the psychological change though would apply much better to the Great Depression itself than to the stock market crash. Since I was a child, many people have told me about how the Depression changed their outlook on life. Whenever I asked them about the stock market crash as a cause of a changed perspective, they said it had no impact. As Professor Galbraith points out, the number of stock investors was less than 2 million in those days. The stock market crash was a background event for most people, albeit an important one since a very high percentage of consumer spending was done by the wealthiest people, as Professor Galbraith points out. Ultimately, this history has too little economic, financial, and business perspective to fully capture what this event means. I suspect that it will not be widely read, even though the information and the analysis are perfectly fine as far as they go. How can we modulate the swings in investment emotion that cause markets to rise too high . . . and fall too low? What will we lose if we do?
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not good enough
Review: Klein's retelling of the story of the stock market crash of 1929 is just too little and much too late. Other books, notably Only Yesterday by F.L. Allen for anecdotal material and The Great Crash of 1929 by J. K. Galbraith for analysis, go over the same material and do a better job. Klein's book does have some strong points: wonderful vignettes of some of the people, big and small, who were caught up in the crash; a good analysis of why Herbert Hoover, "the great engineer," couldn't engineer his way out of this one; some interesting anecdotal material I haven't seen anywher else. But all of that could have been done in less than half the space. Nice try, but no cigar.
Rating:
Summary: Good, but not good enough
Review: Klein's retelling of the story of the stock market crash of 1929 is just too little and much too late. Other books, notably Only Yesterday by F.L. Allen for anecdotal material and The Great Crash of 1929 by J. K. Galbraith for analysis, go over the same material and do a better job. Klein's book does have some strong points: wonderful vignettes of some of the people, big and small, who were caught up in the crash; a good analysis of why Herbert Hoover, "the great engineer," couldn't engineer his way out of this one; some interesting anecdotal material I haven't seen anywher else. But all of that could have been done in less than half the space. Nice try, but no cigar.
Rating: 
Summary: An intriguing argument is presented, here
Review: Maury Klein's Rainbow's End: Crash Of 1929 reveals the story of the Wall Street stock market collapse in 1929 using a narrative which focuses as much on the cultural and economic forces at work during the times as it does of the actual crash and the nation's descent into depression. Was the crash an unusual event in which coincidence played more than a small role? An intriguing argument is presented, here.
Rating:
Summary: A colossal event seen through individual's eyes
Review: Maury Klein, in his book Rainbow's End: The crash of 1929, has given us a blend of a newer style of historiography with the traditional sense of examining historical events. He has given us a look at the Stock Market Crash of 1929 through the eyes of the people that participated, rather than looking at it strictly from an economic or political historical viewpoint.
Klein starts his book with a description of American society in the 1920's and explains to us why the society of excess and speculation led to the crash moreso than a failing of the general American economy. By dotting the landscape with characters, some familiar and some unfamiliar, Klein gives us a good portrayal of the times. There is, unfortunately, only a short section of the book that actually deals with the events of the crash itself. This section focuses the days between Black Thursday and Bloody Tuesday, which culminated in a horrific period of losses in the market. Klein does a good job of staying on task during the sections of the book in explaining the economic factors and the behind-the-scenes actions that took place during these few hectic days. He does not, however, explain the immediate social ramifications (such as the fact that people who lost everything gave up on life) as well as might be expected; he gives this facet of the crash only peripheral coverage. I would recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a socio-economic history of America during this 1920's. It does a very good job of covering this topic. However, if one is looking for details just on the crash itself and those few terrible days on Wall Street, that reader would be well served to find another book to read.
Rating:
Summary: A colossal event seen through individual's eyes
Review: Maury Klein, in his book Rainbow's End: The crash of 1929, has given us a blend of a newer style of historiography with the traditional sense of examining historical events. He has given us a look at the Stock Market Crash of 1929 through the eyes of the people that participated, rather than looking at it strictly from an economic or political historical viewpoint. Klein starts his book with a description of American society in the 1920's and explains to us why the society of excess and speculation led to the crash moreso than a failing of the general American economy. By dotting the landscape with characters, some familiar and some unfamiliar, Klein gives us a good portrayal of the times. There is, unfortunately, only a short section of the book that actually deals with the events of the crash itself. This section focuses the days between Black Thursday and Bloody Tuesday, which culminated in a horrific period of losses in the market. Klein does a good job of staying on task during the sections of the book in explaining the economic factors and the behind-the-scenes actions that took place during these few hectic days. He does not, however, explain the immediate social ramifications (such as the fact that people who lost everything gave up on life) as well as might be expected; he gives this facet of the crash only peripheral coverage. I would recommend this book to anyone that is looking for a socio-economic history of America during this 1920's. It does a very good job of covering this topic. However, if one is looking for details just on the crash itself and those few terrible days on Wall Street, that reader would be well served to find another book to read.
Rating:
Summary: Authoritative, Cogent, and Readable
Review: Rainbow's End, by Maury Klein, will not cheer you up, but it is the best history of the stock market crash of 1929 I've ever read. Klein provides a detailed history of the unfolding of the crash and places it in the economic and social context of the times. His chapters on the key personalities both deepens our understanding of the crash and makes for fascinating reading.
Rating:
Summary: Authoritative, Cogent, and Readable
Review: Rainbow's End, by Maury Klein, will not cheer you up, but it is the best history of the stock market crash of 1929 I've ever read. Klein provides a detailed history of the unfolding of the crash and places it in the economic and social context of the times. His chapters on the key personalities both deepens our understanding of the crash and makes for fascinating reading.
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