The Great Depression

Compiles a history of the Great Depression, including the events that led up to it and the New Deal that followed, with chronologies, personal narratives, and documents

Burg (coauthor, The World Almanac of the American Revolution, Pharos, 1992) competently delivers a narrative summary and chronology of major events in the United States and throughout the world during the Depression. He offers seven chapters, each covering one or more years; brief contemporary quotations from politicians, journalists, authors, and advertisements; and 80 black-and-white photographs. The appendixes contain a selection of primary sources, mainly New Deal statutes and other documents, and capsule biographies. The focus is somewhat different from that of existing reference series such as Britannica's "Annals of America," which is stronger on primary sources, and Time-Life's "This Fabulous Century," which offers better photographs. More recent competition comes from Victor Bondi's American Decades, 1930-1939 (Gale, 1995), which has a topical arrangement, a more attractive layout, and greater scope beyond politics but lacks the quotations. Given these choices, not to mention overlap with other types of reference books, this is an optional selection for school and college libraries.?Robert F. Nardini, North Chichester, N.H.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Another volume in Facts On File's Eyewitness History series follows other similarly organized series entries, including ones on the Vietnam War, the women's suffrage movement, and the French Revolution. These Eyewitness books gather excerpts from a variety of primary sources--speeches, letters, narratives, newspaper accounts, and radio broadcast transcripts--to help readers get a feeling of how and why certain events took place and what it was like to live during each period. A wide range of contemporaneous events are included to provide a sense of historical context. A detailed chronology of each stage of the era is provided. (Pictures have been an especially valuable feature of the series, and 80 black-and-white photographs will be added to the finished work here.) Burg has written extensively on American history and gives here a sweeping view of the Great Depression, beginning with causal and catalytic events starting from the Treaty of Versailles and ending with effects and consequences that culminated with World War II. David Rouse