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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.

Average Customer Rating:

A Must Read

Customer Rating:

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 déjà 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

Customer Rating:

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.

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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

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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

The Other Side of the Story on FDR's New Deal

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Most public school students are taught that FDR pulled the country out of the Great Depression with his New Deal. In this book, the author examines that assumption and shows it to be untenable. The author convincingly argues the point that government intervention (by both Hoover and Roosevelt) did not pull the country out of the depression--it prolonged it. In fact FDR viewed the economy as something to be experimented on, revealing the fact that he really did not understand it. While a little one-sided, the author does give credit to the New Deal where credit is due. In our current economic situation, we would do well to understand that the wrong actions by government can turn a recession into a depression. Let's hope those mistakes do not get repeated, i.e. raising taxes and raising tariffs. For those interesting in history and interested in staying informed about economics and our current crisis--this book is worth your time.