Book Review: Since Yesterday
Oct. 5th, 2005 08:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jennythereaderSince Yesterday
Frederick Lewis Allen
Copyright 1939, 1940
ISBN: 0-06-091322-3
A well written, detailed look at what was happening in the United States from September 3, 1929 to September 3, 1939. Allen selected 9-3-29 as his starting point because that was the day that the Bull Market of the 1920s hit it's peak. While the crash didn't happen until late October, the long slide down had started more than a month earlier. He tells us about Hoover's attempts to solve things, and how Hoover's political/financial philosophy was simply not suited to trying drastic measures to fix things. Allen then follows the course of the Depression through both of Roosevelt's first two terms in office, and tells us which of Roosevelt's ideas worked, which didn't, and which ones you couldn't tell whether they made a difference or not. He also writes about the long build-up to World War II, and how by the fall of 1939 it seemed (to him at least) inevitable that America would be involved in some capacity at some point. Allen also writes about day-to-day life, movies and movie stars, music, and technological change.
It's always interesting to read a history that was written so close to the events chronicled. It has a much more immediate impact, and sometimes authors will talk about aspects of events that get left out of later histories.
Rating: 9 out of 10.
Frederick Lewis Allen
Copyright 1939, 1940
ISBN: 0-06-091322-3
A well written, detailed look at what was happening in the United States from September 3, 1929 to September 3, 1939. Allen selected 9-3-29 as his starting point because that was the day that the Bull Market of the 1920s hit it's peak. While the crash didn't happen until late October, the long slide down had started more than a month earlier. He tells us about Hoover's attempts to solve things, and how Hoover's political/financial philosophy was simply not suited to trying drastic measures to fix things. Allen then follows the course of the Depression through both of Roosevelt's first two terms in office, and tells us which of Roosevelt's ideas worked, which didn't, and which ones you couldn't tell whether they made a difference or not. He also writes about the long build-up to World War II, and how by the fall of 1939 it seemed (to him at least) inevitable that America would be involved in some capacity at some point. Allen also writes about day-to-day life, movies and movie stars, music, and technological change.
It's always interesting to read a history that was written so close to the events chronicled. It has a much more immediate impact, and sometimes authors will talk about aspects of events that get left out of later histories.
Rating: 9 out of 10.
