1929: The Inside Story of The Greatest Crash in Wall Street History

by Andrew Ross Sorkin

Brought to you by Penguin.

From the bestselling author of Too Big to Fail, “the definitive history of the 2008 banking crisis,” comes a spellbinding narrative of the most infamous stock market crash in history. With the depth of a classic history and the drama of a thriller, 1929 unravels the greed, blind optimism, and folly that led to an era-defining collapse—one with ripple effects that still shape our society today

In 1929, the world watched in shock as the unstoppable Wall Street bull market went into a freefall, wiping out fortunes and igniting a depression that would reshape a generation. But behind the flashing ticker tapes and panicked traders, another drama unfolded—one of visionaries and fraudsters, titans and dreamers, euphoria and ruin.

With unparalleled access to historical records and newly uncovered documents, New York Times bestselling author Andrew Ross Sorkin takes readers inside the chaos of the crash, behind the scenes of a raging battle between Wall Street and Washington and the larger-than-life characters whose ambition and naivety in an endless boom led to wreckage. The dizzying highs and brutal lows of this era eerily mirror today’s world—where markets soar, political tensions mount, and the fight over financial influence plays out once again.

This is not just a story about money. 1929 is a tale of power, psychology, and the seductive illusion that “this time is different.” It’s about disregarded alarm bells, financiers who fell from grace, and skeptics who saw the crash coming—only to be dismissed until it was too late.

Hailed as a landmark book, Too Big to Fail reimagined how financial crises are told. Now, with 1929, Sorkin delivers an immersive, electrifying account of the most pivotal market collapse of all time—with lessons that remain as urgent as ever. More than just a history, 1929 is a crucial blueprint for understanding the cycles of speculation, the forces that drive financial upheaval, and the warning signs we ignore at our peril.

'One of the best narrative histories I've read' Wall Street Journal

'A new [Andrew Ross Sorkin] book is always at the top of my reading list' Bill Gates

'A real eye-opener...a work of true scholarship' Financial Times

Andrew Ross Sorkin 2025 (P) Penguin Audio 2025

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Economics, Business, Finance, Politics, American History

Audible Audio

First published October 14, 2025

About the author

Andrew Ross Sorkin is The New York Timess chief mergers and acquisitions reporter and a columnist. Mr. Sorkin, a leading voice about Wall Street and corporate America, is also the editor of DealBook (nytimes.com/dealbook), an online daily financial report he started in 2001. In addition, Mr. Sorkin is an assistant editor of business and finance news, helping guide and shape the papers coverage.

Mr. Sorkin, who has appeared on NBC's Today show and on Charlie Rose on PBS, is a frequent guest host of CNBCs Squawk Box. He won a Gerald Loeb Award, the highest honor in business journalism, in 2004 for breaking news. He also won a Society of American Business Editors and Writers Award for breaking news in 2005 and again in 2006. In 2007, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader.

Mr. Sorkin began writing for The Times in 1995 under unusual circumstances: he hadnt yet graduated from high school.

Mr. Sorkin lives in Manhattan."

Reviews

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

“No cities were bombed or torched in the fall of 1929, and no armies marched on Washington. There were no revolutions or attempted assassinations. No government buildings were taken over by angry mobs. The country faced no earthquakes or floods or fires or pandemics. All the factories remained standing. Most of the farms kept producing. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there was not even any significant loss of life. Popular accounts of despondent stock traders hurling themselves out of windows and leaping off rooftops painted an inaccurate picture… But daily life in America certainly felt different. To the nation, experiencing the implosion of the stock market felt like watching a heavyweight champion getting knocked out by an untested, unheralded amateur. It wasn’t the way the world was supposed to work…”
- Andrew Ross Sorkin, 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History – and How it Shattered a Nation

When you look at the whole of American economic history, an unmistakable pattern emerges. Booms followed by busts. Optimism followed by alarm. When times are good, they are really good, at least for a select few. When times are bad, they are really bad, with the pain spread far more widely than the benefits.

Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929 tells the story of the most famous panic an American history: the infamous stock market crash of October 1929. Often heralded as the beginning of the Great Depression, Wall Street’s collapse was the result of an overheated market driven by a raging speculative fever that inflated stock values and convinced everyone from bankers to shoe-shine boys that generational wealth lay just ahead.

Written in a journalistic style, with a keen eye for characters, 1929 gives lie to the idea of rational markets. For as long as human beings are involved, irrationality is going to exist. One is even tempted to say that illogical emotionality – not simply irrationality but greed, blind optimism, and abject fear – are inherent parts of the system, the gears that keep things moving. Unregulated, these irrationalities keep causing the same results. Though this makes for good drama, it’s tough on the wallet.

***

Sorkin divides 1929 into two large sections. The first is set entirely during the titular year, beginning in February and ending in December. The second focuses on the aftermath of the crash in the years that followed. Each of these halves are further subdivided into datelined chapters, typically focusing on a single event during a particular day.

Throughout, Sorkin stays close to the participants, of which there are many. Included in the cast list are leaders of financial institutions, members of the New York Stock Exchange, Federal Reserve Board members, stockbrokers, speculators, politicians, and even Winston Churchill, who had a real knack for inserting himself into the historical flow.

The advantage of Sorkin’s approach is that it is incredibly entertaining to read. Presented novelistically, with set-pieces and dialogue, the pages simply fly. Sorkin also does a good job in accepting the complexities of individuals, rather than sorting them into the bins of “hero” or “villain.”

For example, a great deal of time is spent with Charles Mitchell, the chairman and chief executive officer of National City Bank. Mitchell wanted to bring stocks to the masses, used his own funds to try to stabilize the market, but also bore a lot of responsibility for out-of-control investing. Then there is Carter Glass, a United States Senator who tried to regulate the banking industry while maintaining his day job of super-gross-racist.

Sorkin’s portraits provide a fascinating glimpse of pre-regulation Wall Street, with its rampant self-dealing, somehow totally-legal stock pools, and journalistic hype-boys using the front pages of major newspapers to pump stock valuations.

***

While Sorkin’s style is propulsive, it comes with a drawback. Specifically, in sticking so close to the ground level, you lose a bit of the overall context. To be sure, the macroeconomic framework of the stock market crash can be teased out of the narrative, beginning with Calvin Coolidge’s laissez faire approach to the presidency, the tenor of the Roaring Twenties, and the absurd belief among investors that growth could be perpetual. Still, I would have appreciated a bit more effort in showing the big picture.

With that said, this is not meant as a comprehensive, systematic look at the Crash of 1929. Rather, it is something brisker and more accessible, a morality play set against a background of clattering stock tickers, secretive financial houses, and extremely powerful men.

***

Sorkin is uniquely suited to a book of this type. He is a financial columnist, a CNBC host, and cocreator of the show Billions. Sorkin also wrote Too Big to Fail, an account of the 2008 Wall Street meltdown that shares many of the same contours of the 1929 fiasco.

In both Too Big to Fail and 1929, Sorkin demonstrates his skill in turning an inherently sedentary activity – buying and selling financial instruments – into something kinetic and exciting. He is also able to give short, lucid explanations of oftentimes confusing concepts, such as short selling.

The bottom line is that one need not have attended business school before picking this up.

***

Though a sometimes-critic of the system, Sorkin is also firmly a part of it. To that end, he offers a surprisingly tepid conclusion about the disaster. In particular, he eschews the idea of regulation in favor of humility: “the humility to know that no system is foolproof, no market fully rational, and no generation exempt.”

This works very well as a framed quote a businessman might hang on the mahogany panels of his office wall, but utterly fails as public policy. People – as 1929 ably demonstrates – are always going to be people. They are driven by powerful self-interested impulses. They will treat the stock market as a casino. They will chase risk one day, and quail from it the next. They they will wreck a company, lose a person’s life savings, destroy an economy, put millions out of work, and walk away without regret, fully expecting a bonus.

In general, we accept that humans are fallible and often make choices harmful to themselves and others. That is why we have laws governing almost every aspect of life, from the height of the grass in your lawn to the penalties for murder.

But in the realm of business, laws and regulations are seen as harmful to profitmaking, especially by those who give money to the men and women who write the laws and regulations. As such, only the most overtly brazen activity is ever punished, and then typically by a fine. Behavior that should be criminal is instead accepted as a legitimate business practice. Humbly do I suggest that this could be changed, because there is no universal statute written into sacred stone saying we cannot punish bad businesspeople. Until the guy who loses billions of dollars is treated with the same legal force as the guy stealing a pack of gum from a convenience store, the age-old cycle will continue unabated.

[Brendan (History Nerds United) · Rating 5 out of 5]

On the face of it, 1929 by Andrew Ross Sorkin gave me pause. Would it be too finance-y? 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.)

[Tony · Rating 3 out of 5]

1929 paints a vivid picture of the period surrounding the great stock market crash of that October and the ensuing onset of the Great Depression.  However, to the extent that Sorkin attempts to explain why these events occurred, I am not certain that he succeeds.  For instance, he illustrates how easy credit and loose regulations lead to the proliferation of trading on margin and its accompanying risks.  However, he never even attempts to explain why average Americans of that era were so obsessed with the stock market in the first place.  Similarly, the author seems to suggest that the 1932 banking crisis was precipitated by inaccurate rumors about one bank; surely, the situation was more complicated than that!  In sum, if you would like to learn about the times and major personalities of the era, 1929 is a highly enjoyable read.  However, do not expect this relatively slender volume to truly explain these momentous events.

[Ryann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I approached this book with an overview knowledge of the 1929 stock market crash in New York City. Andrew Sorkin took this historical event and provided a detailed look at the banks, and more importantly the specific people behind the Wall Street curtain that made the decisions that led to the downfall of many Americans and led the country into the Great Depression.

It begins with the tail end of the Coolidge Presidency and the rampant speculation and risky investments that were going unchecked on Wall Street. He guides you through the crisis that falls on Hoover’s lap and ends with Roosevelt and the accountability trials. A bonus story that I enjoyed was learning that Winston Churchill was an eyewitness. As the stock market was plummeting, a dinner party filled with the most prominent executives of NYC was being held for Churchill.

In every bookstore I’ve visited since its release, 1929 has had a featured display. I can say that the hype has been warranted and I highly recommend! This story was written so that even a financial novice like myself could follow along.

[Tim · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had some interesting stories and provided a helpful feel for what America was like in the run up to the Stock Market crash of 1929 and the aftermath. But it doesn’t provide answers, or even arguments, about why it happened. That wasn’t the point of the book. Instead, it was a narrative story about the people involved.

It was interesting. I did enjoy some of the stories. Of particular interest was the tale of Charles Mitchell, who was President of National City Bank. He went from being a widely respected Wall Street icon to the scapegoat of the Crash - not only disgraced but also on trial for criminal actions. I was interested in this not just because he was a complicated man with an interesting story, but the public’s reaction to him – both overly fawning in good times and unfairly harsh in bad times – is also part of the story about America.

I would have preferred more commentary from Sorkin to help me digest the stories he was telling about all the backroom conversations involving the towering figures of Wall Street and Washington. I think his intention was that the stories would speak for themselves. Perhaps if I had a stronger foundation on Economics, or if I just read more closely, I could have taken away more. But at times the book seemed like a collection of random stories.

[Anita Pomerantz · Rating 3 out of 5]

From an educational standpoint, I did appreciate Sorkin's efforts here. He paints a picture of both the financial situation of the times and the political influences that either exacerbated or mitigated the results.

It was definitely a worthwhile read. I'm becoming more interested in history, and this book filled in some gaps.

But, I also had a few issues. First, I think if you write a book about financial concepts, you need to go into a little more depth about them. Like just saying the word "speculation" repeatedly doesn't really explain to me what was going on. I have an MBA and am interested in financial matters, and I still had questions. Maybe they think a layperson would be too bored by it all, but it's hard to have an opinion if you don't know more exactly what people were doing.

The various stories about the "players" were interesting, but there is a lot of names. There is a very helpful guide to the people at the front of the book. Bookmark that because you're gonna need it. I would say that only a couple were really fleshed out to the point where you cared about their fate. But that was enough to hold my interest. While this book is seemingly marketed as narrative non-fiction, my personal opinion is that it didn't quite reach my bar for that. It's like a history book that uses good anecdotes. I did like the way each chapter is a date in time and that it was told chronologically - - that made the sequence of events very clear for even people who don't normally like history.

All in all - - recommended with a couple of reservations.

[Blaine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fairly superficial history of the 1929 crash, written in a pedestrian, journalistic fashion. Much overrated in the reviews.

The main interest was the portraits of the rogues commonly known as financial geniuses of the era, pouring money into stock pools and syndications, pumping up the economy with excessively low interest rates, selling shares at a low price to their colleagues and the same shares at a high price to the public. All perfectly legal and ethical based on the rules of the day, but still dodgy enough that it had to be done quietly behind the scenes.

It was instructive however in considering how the future will regard today's masters of the universe in cryptocurrencies and in the AI/tech field as we see massive capital being invested in "compute" capacity, like fibre and and housing in the earlier years of this century and the railroads in the 19th.

[Brett Martin · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much from this book. If you work in finance or just have a general interest in it, I definitely recommend checking this one out. Hopefully we can learn from our past mistakes.

[Alan Chrisman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. Average people encouraged to invest with as little as 10% their own money-rest loaned from banks. Like in 2008 banking crises, they gave them mortgages they couldn't afford. Warning for today, because as with tech bust in early 2000's, we could be headed for an AI bust with most people just struggling to keep up with daily costs.

[Robert Sparrenberger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking forward to reading this one but it disappointed. There were too many people to keep straight. A few detailed thoughts:

1. I felt like the book was written for someone with extensive Wall Street/financial background. There was talk of speculation in the market but I never got the sense of what kind and how it was being carried out. The author talked about the bigwigs of banks carrying out shady deals but we don’t get how the average Joe got involved in the market and ultimately screwed.

2. I would have liked a detailed explanation on how buying on margin works and how long one can buy stocks on margin before the rest of the money is due. How did the run on banks begin was never explained either.

3. We got some of the importance the new legislation to come from the market crash but not all of them and how those regulations have been gutted again.

4. A list of all the illegal actions taken by the various characters at the end of the book would have been helpful.

A book for people with a finance degree or heavy interest in the workings of the market. Could have been better if written for a bigger audience.

[Algirdas Purkenas · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok, so Sorkin's goal was to be intimate about the characters of that day. I understand that.

Here's the hot take - Wall St. guys are actually not that interesting. It's just a bunch of greedy men who got a chance to manipulate the system. It happened then. It keeps happening now.

Mahogany tables, he said this, that guy reacted that. Honestly, greed is somewhat boring. It doesn't teach you much. I'd rather spend my time on inspiring people than this lot.

In post epilogue part he actually gave some insights that were valuable. And I understand that the goal of this book was not to give ARS opinion about why things happened.

But realistically - What happened is boring. How it happened would have been way more interesting. Why it happened and what can be learned from that is what I was after. And I didn't get that.

Leverage, policy, lack of regulation, greed. Here.

I think I am done with the finance bro literature for a while.

[Katarina · Rating 5 out of 5]

*Audiobook via Spotify Premium*

Fantastically detailed writing. The author said he hoped he could show the detail and the humanity behind the 1929 crash, like Walter Lord did for the Titanic in A Night to Remember. Sorkin definitely succeeded.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sorkin has written an interesting, character driven look at the greed, speculation, and ignored warnings that led to the 1929 crash and the following Great Depression. He provides this detailed account of the 1929 stock market crash by focusing on the human stories of the financiers, politicians, and ordinary people involved while, at the same time, drawing parallels between those events and today’s financial markets.

Winston Churchill said that “those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” It’s difficult to not reflect on those words when reading this book.

Sorkin says in his Prologue …

“We all love a good story, a concise explanation of how the world works. We all love an easy buck. Temptation has driven human folly for centuries, whether the serpent in the Garden of Eden or the market manias of cryptocurrency or artificial intelligence. Each wave seduces us into thinking that we’ve learned from history and, this time, we can’t be fooled. Then it happens again.”

[Dale Dewitt · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in-depth analysis of the events of 1929 that led to the Great Depression. Mr Ross Sorkin does a great job of making the complicated narrative, with all its parts, easy to understand by creating a key list of characters in order to allow the reader to understand the sometimes complicated financial maneuvering. I enjoyed the read up until part 2 of the book, that is where i felt too much time was spent on the Mitchell trial and on the Morgan Senate hearings. the fast quick narrative style that was seen in the first section of the book seemed to languish a bit in the second part due to the play-by-play that was given. I learned a great many things and felt that I now have a better understanding of the market crash and its aftermath and effects. .

I received an ARC from NetGalley for my honest review.

[Matthew ayer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Dry and lacking a broad perspective

Sorkin has clearly done a lot of research and tells the story how he wants. The book did not give an overarching synopsis of the crash and is more of a day to day of who did what and said what. It seems the book would be appreciated more by someone with a previous grasp on the politics and personalities involved during this time period but to me it lacked any sort of scope. Details and people are mentioned that have nothing to do with the crash or the shattering of a nation but instead seem like just fun(?) anecdotes during that time period. I didn’t find a cohesive theme or conclusion from this book but more of a run on manuscript of the events.

[JS · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book. It breaks down the circumstances that led to the Great Depression and the actions that extended it. And it does so without getting too academic or wonky. The author is great about turning the history into a compelling narrative that blew my mind at multiple turns. I thought I knew the basics of the crash, but I had no idea until this book. The greatest compliment I can give, reserved for the true greats, is that I bored my wife to death talking about it. So… high praise

[Steve Peifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

1929 Andrew Ross Sorkin

This is an amazingly well researched history of the Great Depression that moves like a thriller but warning: It will scare the hell out of you.

There are so many ominous parallels to current economic conditions that it will make stuffing cash in a mattress a reasonable choice.

Reasonable people can debate the causes of the Depression (buying securities on credit, ill advised tariffs, irrational exuberance) but one thing is sure: no one knew what to do.

It’s so well written but it will keep you up at night.

[Ryan Menchey]

Ranking the 6 presidents mentioned in this book based on how good of a hang I think they’d be (descending order):
6. Woodrow Wilson - absolutely not. I’d take the gun and leave the cannoli
5. Calvin Coolidge - would agree on very little. He’d also go nonverbal which I respect but I would too and things would get awkward
4. Warren G. Harding - would try to have an affair with my mom, but at least he’s from Ohio
3. Herbert Hoover - can’t believe I’m putting him this high. Awful communicator, decent humanitarian but he was ahead of his time with 2 Phones (s/o Kevin Gates). Also would’ve literally served another term if he simply spoke out against prohibition #NoFun. “Hoover tried to assuage the public by changing the name for the economic slowdown from a ‘panic’ to a ‘depression,’ which may be the worst rebranding of all time.”
2. FDR - would charm me and obviously warrant my best coffee chat questions. I hate leg day too dude
1. Taft - what do I even need to say. Cincinnatian (Bearcat too), hoss, not gifted at all but put his nose to the grindstone. Can’t properly recite an oath and would’ve benefitted from the existence of SSRIs in his heyday. I’d be far more interested in his role as Chief Justice than his presidential days especially considering he passed the bar exam in Columbus, OH

[Eric Phillips · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reads like a novel. Sobering similarities to 2025.

[Dave Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dave's Summary

Andrew Ross Sorkin’s "1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History and How It Shattered a Nation" explores the greed, corruption, and arrogance that led to the market collapse of 1929. Drawing from private papers, Federal Reserve records, and firsthand accounts, Sorkin recreates the chaos of an era when speculation ruled and there was very little oversight. He recalls a world where bankers manipulated prices, politicians accepted bribes, and the wealthy lived extravagantly while the public bore the losses. The New York Times reporter shows how personal ambition and reckless risk-taking brought down not only fortunes but also public faith in capitalism itself.

The book also looks at the deeper human story behind the financial ruin. Sorkin portrays a country shocked into doubt, unsure if the economic system it trusted could survive. He traces how weak banks, poor leadership, and blind optimism magnified the crash’s effects, leaving ordinary Americans devastated while leaders like Herbert Hoover struggled to respond. Yet Sorkin ends with a reminder that human nature, including hope, greed, and overconfidence, always repeats itself. The 1929 crash, he argues, wasn’t just about money. It was about our tendency to forget hard lessons once the pain fades.

Top Takeaways

- Greed and speculation drove the 1929 market to collapse, exposing deep corruption on Wall Street.
- Weak banking systems and poor government oversight made the financial crash far worse.
- Leaders like Herbert Hoover failed to act decisively, deepening public fear and economic decline.
- The crash shattered America’s trust in its financial institutions and capitalist system.
- Sorkin argues that human nature—greed, hope, and overconfidence—ensures financial crises will keep repeating.

[Dan Leiser · Rating 5 out of 5]

A wonderfully detailed narrative of the hysterical rise and crash of the 20s unregulated stock market bankers. And ultimately the unfortunate realization of this book is that those architects of financial crisis, crashes, and depressions have never been held responsible for the worlds they created and destroyed.

Whether intentionally or not, it’s a sad reflection of our current state right now. Maybe when the trillion dollars that is being passed back and forth between a few companies like a pooled investment scheme crashes we’ll have another opportunity to punish those dark architects of our ruin.

Some other “fun” observations

Lamont, a fascist curious leader of an organization. Who seemed to love Mussolini and flirting with Hitler.

Lamont who was implicated in coup attempts of the US government in the business plot.

An unregulated republican led government led to economic turmoil that democrats have to clean up.

[Owen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It pains me to give this book 3 stars because I loved Too Big To Fail so much, but this one just wasn’t as good. I didn’t find the story nearly as exciting and the characters nearly as exciting as those in Sorkin’s first book. Maybe my perception of the book is due to the fact that these events happened nearly a hundred years ago, and as such I find them more difficult to imagine.

Sorkin’s research and writing is top notch. Maybe more focus on market action would have kept me engaged; I found those moments more compelling than the character descriptions.

It’s still a good book, and I’d recommend it to readers who enjoy Wall Street reporting. But it’s not in the same realm as Too Big To Fail.

[Douglas Hayman · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like ARS and respect his intelligence, but I must be truthful - I found the book to be boring. Too many names (even though he included a glossary of names), and entirely too much minutia. I found myself counting down the pages until the crash occurred. Not enough description of how John Q Public dealt with and weathered the storm. I gave it 3 stars, due to the effort that ARS put into the book regarding detail. Other than that, I found the book to be a snoozer. Sorry ARS!

[Richard Marney · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a well written book, authored by a unique journalist and market commentator. For readers with previous exposure to the history of the ‘29 Crash and the subsequent Great Depression, the book won’t provide much in the way of new facts and analysis. As a first history of this era and a discussion of the implications for society, however, the author “knocked the ball out of the park!”

[Alexandru · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not sure how I feel about this book. It's actually more a story of the bankers, financiers and politicians involved in the 1929 crash rather then the crash itself.

The book is actually very well written and quite entertaining. It reads almost like a fiction book with main characters and a plot. Names like Charles Mitchell, Carter Glass, Herbert Hoover are centre stage in the book.

The author focuses on how all these people's actions led to the great crash of 1929. However what's missing is a pertinent analysis of why the crash happened and the actual economic impact. The author just relays what the people of the time claimed the reasons were (too much credit, too much speculation, not enough regulation, too much regulation).

In the end I did enjoy the book and the story it told but it left me wanting to know more about the actual crash.

[Jason P · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is more like 4.5 stars - but it gets the extra half star because it was a gift from someone I love! This book changed my perception of the Wall Street crash and of the Great Depression generally. It’s a fascinating account of personalities and egos of the bankers and investors who led the rampant speculation that led to massive stock losses in 1929 - fuelled by the money and dreams of ordinary people who wanted a part of what must have felt like a can’t-lose market at the time. I had the notion the Great Depression began the next day. But it wasn’t really like that. And this book suggests we never really learn from our mistakes. We want to hunt for villains. But it’s our own greed and gullibility that drives stock market crashes. And it could all happen again so easily.

[Khan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the second book by Andrew Ross Sorkin that I have read this year, and it further solidifies a tension that has become central to my experience of his work: a striking imbalance between elegant, compelling prose and an almost complete absence of substantive critique of the system responsible for the catastrophe he chronicles.

Going into 1929, I was already skeptical of Sorkin’s ability—or willingness—to offer a genuine examination of the structural corruption that enabled the Great Crash. That skepticism proved well-founded. Sorkin is not merely a historian or journalist; he is a cable news anchor deeply embedded within elite financial and political networks, someone who can “pick up the phone” and gain access to the most powerful figures in the world. That access, however, comes at a cost. In this case, it is the cost of truth.

Sorkin is a committed neoliberal, a stance made evident not only in this book but also in numerous public appearances where he has openly criticized policies such as Glass–Steagall—the separation of commercial and investment banking—that were explicitly designed to prevent the kinds of systemic failures he writes about. One is left with the inescapable conclusion that a serious critique of financial power would be incompatible with the professional position and access Sorkin enjoys. It is difficult to recall an interview in which he has meaningfully challenged the assumptions or behavior of the elite actors he covers. Ultimately, he writes from within the establishment, and the boundaries of his analysis reflect that position.

As a result, 1929 offers a vivid and often entertaining narrative of the crash while remaining almost entirely superficial in its analysis. Sorkin excels at reconstructing scenes, personalities, and moments of high drama. What he does not do is interrogate the political economy that allowed these events to unfold. Most baffling is the book’s conclusion, in which Sorkin praises Herbert Hoover—whose inaction helped turn a market collapse into a national catastrophe—while ridiculing Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose reforms fundamentally reshaped American capitalism and curbed many of the excesses exposed by the crash.

At the heart of Sorkin’s argument is a familiar neoliberal refrain: greed is an immutable aspect of human nature, and therefore no regulatory framework can ever meaningfully prevent financial excess or “irrational exuberance.” This framing conveniently ignores the reality that elites at the time engaged in coordinated, backroom manipulation—pooling capital to inflate stock prices and then shorting those same assets for profit. Sorkin repeatedly notes that these actions were not illegal at the time, as if legality were synonymous with legitimacy. He goes further, implying that anyone placed in the same position would have behaved similarly.

This is a deeply flawed conclusion. It effectively argues that because greed exists, society should not attempt to regulate systems in ways that prevent the concentrated power of a few from devastating the savings and livelihoods of the many. It is an argument that mistakes moral resignation for realism, and it reads like the worldview of someone unknowingly trapped within an elite ideological bubble.

What makes this especially troubling is how closely the elites of the 1920s resemble those of today. Contemporary technology executives now argue—much as Wall Street financiers once did—that regulation must be avoided because it would undermine national security or harm America’s global competitiveness. This rhetoric persists despite the fact that tech monopolies already extract enormous rents from the public, raise prices, and wield disproportionate influence in Washington. Despite the bipartisan hostility toward regulating artificial intelligence from voters - Politicians purchased by oligarchs sign executive actions aimed at limiting oversight of AI, is yet another signal of a political system deeply captured by oligarchic interests.

The pattern is unmistakable. Then, as now, elites insist that any constraint on their power would endanger the nation, even as their unchecked behavior causes widespread harm. Even when the damage becomes undeniable—when there is little left to extract—they continue to defend the status quo. It is a testament to how dangerous concentrated power can be: faced with overwhelming evidence, elites will still choose to preserve their dominance rather than relinquish even a fraction of it.

In the end, 1929 is an engaging narrative that fails as a serious critique of financial capitalism. Sorkin’s prose is undeniably polished, but it is deployed in service of an analysis that absolves systems, excuses power, and normalizes elite misconduct. History suggests, and the present confirms, that this worldview is not merely inadequate—it is dangerous. That is precisely why robust laws and regulations are necessary: not because greed can be eliminated, but because it can be constrained, so that a small class of unaccountable billionaires does not repeatedly bring entire nations to ruin.


2.5 stars

[Simonas · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tikrai už storry tellingą 5*. Į didžiausią finansų griūtį 1929-aisiais pažvelgta per dalyvavusių veiksme prizmę - tai daugiau žmonių asmeninės istorijos, nei ekonominė analizė. Labai įdomu koks buvo politikų, prezidento, bankų vadovų elgesys. Visas tekstas net arčiau grožinio nei non-fiction.

[Sara H · Rating 5 out of 5]

Extremely well researched and informative, but engaging narrative about how the 1929 crash stock market crash evolved into a new system of American society.

[Lucy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed learning about the people, institutions, machinations and causes behind the 1929 stock market crash. I emailed the author with a question and he promptly responded. 😊