The Forgotten Man

A New History

By: Amity Shlaes

Narrated by: Terence Aselford

It's difficult today to imagine how America survived the Great Depression. Only through the stories of the common people who struggled during that era can we really understand how the nation endured. In The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression. Rejecting the old emphasis on the New Deal, she turns to the neglected and moving stories of individual Americans, and shows how they helped establish the steadfast character we developed as a nation.

Shlaes also traces the mounting agony of the New Dealers themselves as they discovered their errors. She shows how both Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt failed to understand the prosperity of the 1920s and heaped massive burdens on the country that more than offset the benefit of New Deal programs. The real question about the Depression, she argues, is not whether Roosevelt ended it with World War II. It is why the Depression lasted so long. From 1929 to 1940, federal intervention helped to make the Depression great—in part by forgetting the men and women who sought to help one another. The Forgotten Man, offers a new look at one of the most important periods in our history, allowing us to understand the strength of American character today.

Slow start, solid finish

Like the great depression itself, the book labors along at times, but overall it is a solid and revealing portrait of the 20' s leading into and "through" that dark economic labyrinth providing the intellectual foundations of the New Dealers, their programs renamed and expanding upon Hoover's initiatives, and how Roosevelt changed American politics forever into group warfare. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Has interstitial music between chapters

Great book. Schlaes has a great eye eye interesting details. However, someone thought it would be a good idea to add distracting music between the chapters. It's disruptive and unpleasant.

One of the Best Books On the Subject

This is absolutely one of the best books on the subject of the Great Depression. The depth that Ms. Shlaes go to in dealing with such subjects as the Schecters, and the personalities of the "brain-trust" and other details is superb.
I'm a former high school teacher and this is one of the books I recommend most often to my former students.

Had To Put It Down

This is the first audiobook I've had to stop listening to because it was too boring.

To avoid future mistakes, we must study the past

The Forgotten Man is the perfect book for the times we are in now. It reminds us of the lessons this country learned the hard way through the 1930s. Many of those lessons are not being taught in today's schools. This book lends credence the same philosophy my college economics professor taught. That philosophy is that no one can spend and borrow their way to prosperity. Ms. Shlaes' book taught me that in the 1930s is was possible to go to jail for selecting a specific live chicken for sale rather then grabbing the closest one to the door. She showed us what happens to common stock holders like you and I when government competes against private companies. To compare what happened through the 1930s to what is happening now is frightening. Everyone should read this (or listen to) this book.