The Great Depression: A Diary (Paperback)

Benjamin Roth

ISBN 10: 1586489011 / ISBN 13: 9781586489014

Published by PublicAffairs,U.S., New York, 2010

About this Item

Paperback. When the stock market crashed in 1929, Benjamin Roth was a young lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio. After he began to grasp the magnitude of what had happened to American economic life, he decided to set down his impressions in his diary. This collection of those entries reveals another side of the Great Depression,one lived through by ordinary, middle-class Americans, who on a daily basis grappled with a swiftly changing economy coupled with anxiety about the unknown future. Roth's depiction of life in time of widespread foreclosures, a schizophrenic stock market, political unrest and mass unemployment seem to speak directly to readers today. "Hardcover first published in 2009 in the United States by PublicAffairs, a member of the Perseus Books Group."--Title page verso. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781586489014

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Great Depression: A Diary (Paperback)
• Publisher: PublicAffairs,U.S., New York
• Publication Date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1586489011
• ISBN 13: 9781586489014
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

An enlightening and personal daily account of the experience of the Great Depression in the midwest, full of anxieties about the economic future, with powerful echoes for today.

"Compelling." ―New York Times

In the early 1920s, Benjamin Roth was a young lawyer fresh out of the army. He settled in Youngstown, Ohio, a booming Midwestern industrial town. Times were good―until the stock market crash of 1929. After nearly two years of economic crisis, it was clear that the heady prosperity of the Roaring Twenties would not return quickly.

As Roth began to grasp the magnitude of what had happened to American economic life, he set out to record his impressions in a diary―a document that would grow to span several volumes over more than a decade. Penning brief, clear-eyed notes on the crisis which unfolded around him, Roth struggled to understand the complex forces governing political and economic life, yet he remained eager to learn from the crisis. As he wrote of what is now known as the Great Depression, "To the man past middle life it spells tragedy and disaster, but to those of us in the middle thirties it may be a great school of experience out of which some worth while lesson may be salvaged."

Roth's words from that unique time seem to speak directly to readers today. His perceptions and experiences have a chilling similarity to those of our own era. Fearful of inflation and skeptical of big government, Roth yearned for signs of true recovery, and eventually formed his own theories of how a prudent person might survive hard times.

The Great Depression: A Diary reveals another side of the Great Depression―one lived through by ordinary, middle-class folks, who on a daily basis grappled with a swiftly changing economy coupled with apprehension about the unknown future.

About the Author

James Ledbetter is current editor of Inc. Magazine, and former editor of "The Big Money," Slate.com's website on business and economics, and for Reuters. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Nation, and Mother Jones, among other publications. Author of six books, including One Nation Under Gold (2017), Ledbetter lives in New York.

Daniel B. Roth, son of Benjamin Roth, is the former chairman of the law firm of Roth, Blair, Roberts, Strasfeld & Lodge in Youngstown, Ohio.