Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for 1929:
Everything is great! Then depression.
Quick synopsis:
The story of the beginning of the Great Depression.
Fact for Non-History People:
One of Calvin Coolidge’s sons died of sepsis from a blister he got playing tennis at the White House.
Fact for History Nerds:
A poll done after the 1932 election showed 83% of respondents wanted to repeal Prohibition.
My Take on 1929:
On the face of it, 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin gave me pause. Would it be too finance-y and would there be concepts that make my head hurt? Would I just become even more worried about my 401k? Great news! No, no, and yes, but that’s not his fault. Instead, you get a character driven tale of hubris, politics, and depression in both the literal and figurative sense.
I loved this book so much because Sorkin understands people and their relationships are what gets readers invested (you are dang right that pun was intended). The first issue with a book like this is that there are so many characters who need to be in it. Sorkin ingeniously tells the story chronologically with each chapter being a specific date while consistently starting the chapter with someone the reader is already familiar with. No one is wasted. Anyone you are introduced to in the first few chapters will come back later on and matter to the narrative. That way, Sorkin can ground the reader with a familiar face while explaining financial activities and perhaps adding a few more names to the book’s Rolodex. The book even goes past 1929 which, admittedly, I thought was going to be a mistake. However, Sorkin quickly proves that the aftermath on his characters is just as important as the crash.
Sorkin, who wrote the acclaimed Too Big to Fail, also effortlessly immerses the reader in the financial shenanigans of the time period. I personally have a low tolerance for finance as a subject. However, the author gives you just enough to know what is going on without making you want to take a long nap. In fact, Sorkin makes sure to make the narrative mostly about the actions of his characters and the simple fact that no one knows exactly what the stock market will do. As is often said, show, don’t tell.
Finally, I have a pet peeve of taking a historical event and forcing current events into it. Wonderfully, Sorkin never even hints at connecting 1929 to today. Don’t get me wrong, he certainly provides plenty of information for the reader to make their own connections, but he never shoves it in the reader’s face. This is about 1929 and its aftermath. He understood the assignment, and he nailed it.
(This book was provided as an advance reader copy by NetGalley and Viking Books.)
Verdict:
More interesting than economics has any right to be. Buy it here!
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