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The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression | 
 enlarge | Author: Amity Shlaes
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Rating:  155 reviews
Sales Rank: 86
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 512
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 7.6 x 5.2 x 1.2
ISBN: 0060936428
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.916
EAN: 9780060936426
ASIN: 0060936428
Publication Date: June 1, 2008
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Product Description
In The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes, one of the nation's most-respected economic commentators, offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression. She traces the mounting agony of the New Dealers and the moving stories of individual citizens who through their brave perseverance helped establish the steadfast character we recognize as American today.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 150 more reviews...
 The Always Recovering But Never Recovered Decade December 3, 2008
Amity Shlaes has written an excellent book. She presents a balanced and mutually negative view of both a removed, mechanistic Hoover and a vindictive, manipulative Roosevelt. The author feels that the election of 1936 saw the creation of two things that have had disasterus results that have continued to today's America: the creation of Entitlements, and the Pressure Groups that have come to depend on them. Roosevelt deliberately planned the creation of these groups; to turn us from individuals into members of groups so as to be easily manipulated The author should have shown how the use of the new technologies; radio, propaganda art, movies were paralleled in other countries. Roosevelt relied upon young intellectuals who were often enamored with the Soviet Union and its idea of the collective not as an end of itself, but as a means of social change.
There was no "stock market bubble" in the 1920's. The high prices reflected real productive gains and the reasonable expectation of more through such developing technologies as electricity. The government adopted a tax policy that discouraged investment and growth. The government would take almost all of your gain, but you would bear most of the loss. The left and the right view economic downturns differently. To the left it is a permanent condition due to the shortfalls of the capitalist system that can only re remedied by government intervention. To the right, it is a temporary condition that the free market will eventually rectify. A key question is that of business profits. Should they become wages, or stay as capital to be turned into more jobs and productivity.
Her conclusions are supported by an extensive bibliography and explanatory notes.
A Must Read December 3, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
A great read at the right time in history. I read this book during the 08 presidential campaigns juxtaposing the FDR administration and the Obama campaign; I could not help but feel an ominous deja vu. The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes is a case study of the FDR years. Shlaes historic exhumation shows history on the verge of repeating itself.
Elected to the presidency during a national recession, FDR delivers us the New Deal. He inherits a depression and promptly expands the roll of government, demonizing the industrialists; the entrepreneurs and business men. He and his administration paint these champions of capitalism as greedy and insensitive, while simultaneously promoting an altruistic doctrine of collectivism, much of which modeled after the Soviet Union. It is this New Deal experiment which transforms the depression into the Great Depression.
The Forgotten Man first defined by William Graham Sumner in 1883, depicted an individual whose burden it was to pay for collectivized government policies; he was the man whose fiscal duty, married him to an altruistic cause. Roosevelt hijacked the term (The Forgotten Man) for campaign purposes; changed the nomenclature to mean the impoverished man, the out of work individual who needed a hand up in the form of government assistance, which he and his collectivist cronies financed with oppressive tax burdens on those who could, or couldn't pay. FDR waged war on the business man, usurping his assets, through antitrust laws and oppressive tax legislation, and when projected tax revenues fell short in funding the expanding role of government, the fed devised a plan to tax retroactive revenues.
The book contains a wide cast of characters most of who are easily identified by their communist party affiliations, or their romantic idealism for Soviet Russia. Many in the state department at the time glorified Joseph Stalin as a great egalitarian, adopting his collectivist idealism, implementing social change on our economically crippled nation imposing price controls and targeting private markets. Only when the insidious nature of Communism erupted into chaos, and Stalin engaged in mock trials, executions, and gulags, did the New Deal reformers stop toying with socialist reformations in America; scrambling instead in a failed attempt to redefine capitalism.
The real calamity for this reader though comes in the form of national apathy. During the thirties the country became so down trodden they lost site of prosperity. Instead of a return to the productive years of the twenties the country became numb looking instead for stability in mediocrity; instead of a feast, Americans became complacent with a bone.
In the end, the morality of altruism with its New Deal experiment could not lift the country out of Depression. It was only with the coming of the second World War did Roosevelt turn about face and embrace the same industrialist he previously abhorred and prosecuted; only then did our industrial complex lift us out of the great depression. The rest is history.
Best Read of 2008 December 2, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Amity Shlaes has written a timely book that informs and intrigues. No politician, regardless of which side of the aisle they sit, is safe.
I literally could not put The Forgotten Man down -- read like a novel. Learned a great deal more about the Great Depression and the widely misunderstood failed experiments of FDR's New Deal that led to big government and a 10 year period that we do not want to repeat.
Since reading I have noticed Amity Shlaes on The Daily Show and Fox News . . . she has a refreshing personality, stays on point, and demonstrates an astute understanding of cause and effect.
Regardless of your politics, this is an important book to read, lest we make the same mistakes of the past.
Astonishing look back, to our present day. December 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you are a student of modern history, especially economic history, you must read this book. If you are a student of modern economics, you must read this book. If you care about what is being done about the current economic crisis, you must read this book. A prescient book (published just before all the economic troubles we're currently facing), perhaps in the nick of time, the author takes a new look at the Great Depression and the policies used to combat it. Read about what they did seventy years ago and see the chilling similarities with today's crisis - and the responses to it. If what I have written stirs any interest at all, read this book. You will not regret it.
The Forgotten Man December 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Great book. For those who do not believe history repeats itself - it really does - but not in the exact same way each time. After the excesses of the 1920's, socialism (FDR) arose in America and now after the excesses of the the Regan boom - socialism (obama) has again reared it's head. The parallels in this book to today's times are uncanny. One is left wondering how many more cycles are left before America finally plunges over the cliff of no return - i.e. socialism. The Wall may have fallen; however, it would seem communism is alive well in the U.S. and is in the active process of burying us. This book puts it all in perspective to any intelligent mind who understands the elements at work in today's times.The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression
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