A Nation in Torment: The Great American Depression 1929-1939

by Edward Robb Ellis

International in scope, this series of non-fiction trade paperbacks offers books that explore the lives, customs and thoughts of peoples and cultures around the world. This is the story of the American Depression between 1929 and 1939.

Genres: Nonfiction, History

570 pages, Paperback

First published January 5, 1972

Reviews

[Greg Strandberg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I only read half of this book, but wow, it was great! You really get some details on the Great Depression that you won't find anywhere else. If you want a book that goes into the causes in the mid-20s and then into great detail on the effect for everyday people, this is the book.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must admit, despite a lifelong fascination with 1930s music, radio, comics, movies, and other cultural byproducts, that I only had a vague sense of the miserable conditions of day to day life brought about by the economic disaster of the time. Ellis does a great job of describing the set-up for the fall, the Wall Street crash itself, the ever-increasing problems of American citizens in a land where there were simply not enough jobs and not enough income to go around, the attempts at solutions by Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his hand-picked helpers, the pathos of the Okies in California, the potential fascism represented by Huey Long, Father Coughlin, and the previously unknown-to-me Dr. Francis Townsend (all three of whom offer remarkable parallels to our current situation - one of them even complained about "fake" newspaper articles) and the large scale work relief of the WPA. This book, written in 1970 by a man who was in college at the very beginning of the Depression, is eminently readable, mixing statistics with all sorts of human anecdotes.

[Lenny · Rating 5 out of 5]

A long book that breaks down every aspect of the Great Depression. The first chapters were particularly interesting. They described in detail how the stock market evolved into a nations pastime and daily fun pursuit.

[David Vanness]

My copy is 576 pages of hardback.