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Pivotal Moments in American History
Rainbow's End: The Crash of 1929
The first major history of the Crash in over a decade, Rainbow's End tells the story of the stock market collapse in a colorful, swift-moving narrative that blends a vivid portrait of the 1920s with an intensely gripping account of Wall Street's greatest catastrophe.
The book offers a vibrant picture of a world full of plungers, powerful bankers, corporate titans, millionaire brokers, and buoyantly optimistic stock market bulls. We meet Sunshine Charley Mitchell, head of the National City Bank, powerful financiers Jack Morgan and Jacob Schiff, Wall Street
manipulators such as the legendary Jesse Livermore, and the lavish-living Billy Durant, founder of General Motors. As Klein follows the careers of these men, he shows us how the financial house of cards gradually grew taller, as the irrational exuberance of an earlier age gripped America and
convinced us that the market would continue to rise forever. Then, in October 1929, came a "perfect storm"-like convergence of factors that shook Wall Street to its foundations. We relive Black Thursday, when police lined Wall Street, brokers grew hysterical, customers "bellowed like lunatics," and
the ticker tape fell hours behind. This is followed by the even worse Bloody Tuesday, when an irrational desire to sell at any price gripped the market and even blue chip stocks plummeted precariously.
This compelling history of the Crash--the first to follow the market closely for the two years leading up to the disaster--illuminates a major turning point in our history.
The book offers a vibrant picture of a world full of plungers, powerful bankers, corporate titans, millionaire brokers, and buoyantly optimistic stock market bulls. We meet Sunshine Charley Mitchell, head of the National City Bank, powerful financiers Jack Morgan and Jacob Schiff, Wall Street
manipulators such as the legendary Jesse Livermore, and the lavish-living Billy Durant, founder of General Motors. As Klein follows the careers of these men, he shows us how the financial house of cards gradually grew taller, as the irrational exuberance of an earlier age gripped America and
convinced us that the market would continue to rise forever. Then, in October 1929, came a "perfect storm"-like convergence of factors that shook Wall Street to its foundations. We relive Black Thursday, when police lined Wall Street, brokers grew hysterical, customers "bellowed like lunatics," and
the ticker tape fell hours behind. This is followed by the even worse Bloody Tuesday, when an irrational desire to sell at any price gripped the market and even blue chip stocks plummeted precariously.
This compelling history of the Crash--the first to follow the market closely for the two years leading up to the disaster--illuminates a major turning point in our history.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2001
17 people are currently reading
378 people want to read
About the author
Maury Klein
30 books32 followersMaury Klein is renowned as one of the finest historians of American business and economy. He is the author of many books, including The Power Makers: Steam, Electricity, and the Men Who Invented Modern America; and Rainbow's End: The Crash of 1929. He is Professor Emeritus of History at the University of Rhode Island. He lives in Saunderstown, Rhode Island.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
June 5, 2009
The amazing lesson from this depression is that no one knows much about the real causes and effect of ANYTHING." -- W. W. Kiplinger (1929)
What caused the Great Crash of 1929? That's what I've been trying to figure out the last few weeks. Stocks were over valued, but there wasn't a typical bubble that suddenly burst sending the markets spiraling downward. Certainly fear turned to panic selling forced the markets abruptly down during the last weeks of October. But what triggered the first massive wave of selling? Who pulled the carpet out from under Wall Street, and how? Turns out that no one may ever be able to put a thumb on the ultimate cause. Henry Ford curtly said the crash was due to a "serious withdrawal of brains from business." Klein offers a much more ambitious explanation. He argues that the market's crashing was due to a "perfect storm" created by several small, marginally interrelated cultural and economic factors that all contributed to creating the great market meltdown. He attempts to "convey ... a sense of the interplay between the shifting mood of Americans ... and the key events that influenced them.... in this way can one begin to comprehend what was involved in this pivotal moment." Sounds intriguing. Unfortunately, his argument isn't at all persuasive.
Instead of revealing clear cause and effect relationships between cultural phenomena and market trends, Klein gives us over 200 pages of social history and biography, which -- interesting as pole sitting, the founding of GM, and the scandalous adventures of Aimee Semple McPherson may be -- are never clearly tied to the pivotal moment of the market's first stumble. The crash itself doesn't occur until two-thirds of the way through the book and is over within a few pages. I was left feeling as bewildered about what just happened as any trader on the floor must have felt on Black Thursday. The last two chapters wander off into the 1930s, tracing some of the government's attempts to slow the country's descent into the Great Depression. I got to the last page expecting to find a chapter that would some how tie all his information together, offering some sort of conclusion. But instead, when I turned the page, all I found were the notes and bibliography. Oh Maury, you've fallen far short of your promise to explain the Crash in terms of American's preoccupation with fads, advertising, and proto-televangelism.
So maybe Kiplinger got it right 80 years ago: maybe nobody will ever really know what let loose that first disastrous sell-off. Better though to admit that you don't really have the answer than to drag your readers through nearly 300 pages of rehashed social history and then sneak out the back door leaving your guests bemused and befuddled.
What caused the Great Crash of 1929? That's what I've been trying to figure out the last few weeks. Stocks were over valued, but there wasn't a typical bubble that suddenly burst sending the markets spiraling downward. Certainly fear turned to panic selling forced the markets abruptly down during the last weeks of October. But what triggered the first massive wave of selling? Who pulled the carpet out from under Wall Street, and how? Turns out that no one may ever be able to put a thumb on the ultimate cause. Henry Ford curtly said the crash was due to a "serious withdrawal of brains from business." Klein offers a much more ambitious explanation. He argues that the market's crashing was due to a "perfect storm" created by several small, marginally interrelated cultural and economic factors that all contributed to creating the great market meltdown. He attempts to "convey ... a sense of the interplay between the shifting mood of Americans ... and the key events that influenced them.... in this way can one begin to comprehend what was involved in this pivotal moment." Sounds intriguing. Unfortunately, his argument isn't at all persuasive.
Instead of revealing clear cause and effect relationships between cultural phenomena and market trends, Klein gives us over 200 pages of social history and biography, which -- interesting as pole sitting, the founding of GM, and the scandalous adventures of Aimee Semple McPherson may be -- are never clearly tied to the pivotal moment of the market's first stumble. The crash itself doesn't occur until two-thirds of the way through the book and is over within a few pages. I was left feeling as bewildered about what just happened as any trader on the floor must have felt on Black Thursday. The last two chapters wander off into the 1930s, tracing some of the government's attempts to slow the country's descent into the Great Depression. I got to the last page expecting to find a chapter that would some how tie all his information together, offering some sort of conclusion. But instead, when I turned the page, all I found were the notes and bibliography. Oh Maury, you've fallen far short of your promise to explain the Crash in terms of American's preoccupation with fads, advertising, and proto-televangelism.
So maybe Kiplinger got it right 80 years ago: maybe nobody will ever really know what let loose that first disastrous sell-off. Better though to admit that you don't really have the answer than to drag your readers through nearly 300 pages of rehashed social history and then sneak out the back door leaving your guests bemused and befuddled.
January 12, 2022
Very interesting. I learned quite a few details that I never knew. I loved reading about the time-frame this author focuses on; a well-done book. I saw it tucked into a library shelf and I am glad I picked it up.
March 3, 2021
Good historical account of the period before and leading up to the market crash in '29. Book is an easier read than you think as the last quarter of the book is all footnotes. Worth a read for sure!
November 17, 2008
This didn't really answer any questions so much as give a rundown of what happened during the Crash. I learned a lot of things that I didn't know before, but I didn't necessarily learn the things I wanted to. The one unsettling thing that I definitely did pick up is that this could definitely happen again. Creepy.
February 20, 2008
Great book that does a great job explaining WHY the Depression happened, and not just what happened. I have read quite a bit on this topic, but Klein's information and presentation make this one of the better books on a topic that is often misunderstood.
September 4, 2017
A book everyone should read. It outlines how Black Tuesday happened and how the market fell causing one of the longest and deepest market Depressions in American history. It is also a great precautionary history of what could happen again to the World Economy if the current administration continues to dismantle the safety net and regulations in place.
It is a compelling read of how everyone was encouraged to invest in Wall Street as the market kept rising then when a correction occurred it scared everyone and forced banks to call in loans it had that were based on the stocks themselves and then went under when they couldn't recover enough money to pay their depositors when they needed their money.
It is a compelling read of how everyone was encouraged to invest in Wall Street as the market kept rising then when a correction occurred it scared everyone and forced banks to call in loans it had that were based on the stocks themselves and then went under when they couldn't recover enough money to pay their depositors when they needed their money.
December 5, 2024
This was a very good, well researched volume. It is a good time piece that illustrates the state of the USA doing the twenties. It examines carefully the state of our society as it recovered from World War One and entered a time of accelerated progress. The book can be overwhelming to someone who does not know the inner workings of the Stock Market. The only reason I did not give this four stars is due to the fact that the text sometimes gets bogged down in the different types of stock transactions and the businesses these transactions affected. It can get a little full steer a while and the author spends much time giving too much financial information.
February 6, 2019
Seems Familiar
The way the author set the table was incredible. And he personalized it from the perspective of several individuals, high and low in the food chain. I never understood that the depression was a slow stone rolling. Not entirely a drop off the shelf one uncertain day. In that era, America suffered three existential threats, economic, environmental and psychological. I don’t know about you dear readers but I would not want to face down any kind of such a threat at this point in time. The ending would completely different, I’m certain of it.
The way the author set the table was incredible. And he personalized it from the perspective of several individuals, high and low in the food chain. I never understood that the depression was a slow stone rolling. Not entirely a drop off the shelf one uncertain day. In that era, America suffered three existential threats, economic, environmental and psychological. I don’t know about you dear readers but I would not want to face down any kind of such a threat at this point in time. The ending would completely different, I’m certain of it.
June 24, 2019
A good book on the Crash of 1929. More history than economics but with more depth into the characters of the time than Galbraith's. Hoover has gone up somewhat in my estimation on reading this although his inability to see the seriousness of the situation post April 1930 is unforgivable.
April 21, 2023
Very good book that paints an all-encompassing picture of the roaring 20’s. Mixes culture and business well. Isn’t exactly a straight trajectory in terms of story telling but does all come together by the end. A must-read if interested in stock market crashes.
April 21, 2018
Read it to get an understanding of the mood of people, banks and institutions before, during and after the crash
February 8, 2019
A lot of time spent laying out the landscape but not much into the downfall.
August 12, 2024
Historian Maury Klein published the book Rainbow’s End: The Crash of 1929 in 2001. The book is part of the Pivotal Moments in American History series. The book contains black and white photographs. The book also includes a section of notes, a selected bibliography, and an index. Klein is a historian of business and economy in the United States. Klein is a professor emeritus at the University of Rhode Island. Klein’s book is Rainbow’s End because the Rainbow to Klein symbolizes the prosperity many Americans in the 1920s believed was right around the corner (Klein xviii-xix). This feeling that prosperity was just around the corner led many Americans to play the stock market, participate in the retail estate bubble in Florida, or take some other get-rich scheme popular among Americans in the 1920s (Klein 88-95). I read the book on my Kindle. Klein believes that before the stock market crash of 1929, among many Americans in the 1920s, "there was something almost mystical in popular attitudes toward the bull market” (Klein xix). Klein’s book is interested in this “attitude” among many Americans in the 1920s (Klein xix). Klein’s book is an economic, business, cultural, and psychological history of the United States in the late 1920s. It might be notable to note that Maury Klein’s book was published before the economic crisis of 2008-2009. Maury Klein’s book Rainbow’s End: The Crash of 1929 is a readable history story about the stock crash of 1929.
November 1, 2011
At Rainbow's End provides a succinct yet through look at the Great Depression and how it changed life in America. By tracking the propensities of the 1920s and the rise of consumer culture the reader gets a clear picture of the investment frenzy that gripped the nation. The over valuation of stocks and the financial crisis is clearly laid out in laymen's terms with an overview for those who want the technical financial explanation. It tracks interesting vignettes and mini biographies of major players and how they affected and were changed by the depression. It does not look at the solutions to the depression, only the causes. This is an average entry into the Pivotal Moments in American history. The problem is that this is such a no brainier event for the series that it does not take much convincing and this book does not try to do so. Instead it tries to give a social perspective which while new and different may not excite all readers. It is still a great book and one that provides a new perspective. For those interested in the roaring twenties it is a great book to look at.
June 29, 2009
Like another reviewer said, "This didn't really answer any questions so much as give a rundown of what happened during the Crash. I learned a lot of things that I didn't know before, but I didn't necessarily learn the things I wanted to." I liked the details of the different key players (the wealthy and powerful people of the day). I was amazed to learn how people went crazy over property in Florida, over stocks, over anything that might bring instant wealth. The thing I wanted to know was how that crash was similar to the one we just experienced. One similarity I noticed was the how the ripple effect eventually affected the whole economy. It took three years for the ripple effect to penetrate the economy and totally shut it down. The author made the crash more dramatic by taking it down to a play by play of each day and the uncertainties that people experienced especially on the weekends as they waited to find out what the stock market would do on Monday morning.
January 26, 2017
Fortunes made and lost
We have all heard the story of the stock market crash of 1929 but few as myself never knew who all the major players were and certain events that helped bring on the inevitable crash. I learned so much about those powerful holders of mass wealth and there businesses that I never knew of before reading the book. It's a very good historical look into a time gone by with a underlying message of no matter how wealthy one is it can all be lost almost overnight.
We have all heard the story of the stock market crash of 1929 but few as myself never knew who all the major players were and certain events that helped bring on the inevitable crash. I learned so much about those powerful holders of mass wealth and there businesses that I never knew of before reading the book. It's a very good historical look into a time gone by with a underlying message of no matter how wealthy one is it can all be lost almost overnight.
November 16, 2011
History. I thoroughly enjoyed every page of this book. Klein paints the most compelling picture yet of the stock-market crash of 1929. Klein tells the story of the crash clearly and well, with some especially good pen portraits of characters such as Tomas Lamont, Jesse Livermore, Charley Mitchell and Albert Wiggin.
March 1, 2010
Pretty interesting book on the build-up and event of the crash. Really mainly a narrative of the political and business leaders of the late '20s, not as much an explanation of the crash, which is what I was hoping for.
June 20, 2007
great book - interesting characters from a long gone time that carries erie parallels to the great stock market frenzy of the late 90's early 2000's.
July 17, 2010
Excellent book that explains the events surrounding the crash of 1929 that led up to the Great Depression.
February 9, 2015
Good historical account of the crash and the aftermath.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews