Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 973.91
EAN num: 9780060913229
ISBN number: 0060913223
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 400
Printing Date: July 16, 1986
Publishing house: Harper Perennial
Release Date: July 16, 1986
Sale Popularity Level: 402465
Studio: Harper Perennial
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'Vividly and with great skills he marshals the men, the mountebanks, the measures, and the events of ten years of American life and causes them to march before us in orderly panathenaic procession.'--Saturday Review
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Rated by buyers -
'Since Yesterday' (1940) is a journalistic history of the 1930's in America. Frederick Lewis Allen also wrote 'Only Yesterday' (1930) about the 1920's, and these two books are probably his most well known and popular. It is written in a conversational tone for a popular audience and at times is really entertaining and fascinating. It's at its best discussing popular culture and the changing zeitgeist of America, the political and economic history is often a bit dry. It's valuable for learning about the era because it was one of the very first attempts at writing a history of the 1930's, when the events were still fresh, the episodes Allen focuses on are what the people of the time found the most important and foremost in their conscious. Thus one gets a sense of how events flowed together, how one thing effected the next, a more holistic view. The 1930's were very dynamic for a lot of reasons, probably one of the most quickly changing of the 20th century despite it's sordid reputation for gangsters, dust bowls and the depression - World War II was largely a product of the (failed) politics of the 1930's and that war defined the rest of the century (and beyond). My interpretation (not Allen's) is that empowering technological innovations had spread to the masses: cars, radio, machinery, electricity - these things created more free time (5-hr work week, leisure time), rising rates of education and political involvement - all part of a bigger continuing process that can be seen in the world yesterday in China, India, etc.. we have much to learn about the changes other countries are going through by looking back at the changes in our own country in the 1930's.
Rated by buyers -
While I found this book a bit less engaging than his previous effort on the 1920s, it was nonetheless a fascinating look at the decade by someone who had just lived through it. As an author who sets some pulp-style stories in the era it provides an invaulable overview and copious research opportunity.
Rated by buyers -
Frederick Lewis Allen begins this short book (346 pages) where he left off in his last book (�Only Yesterday�) - with the stock market crash of 1929 - and ends it with the
advent of World War II in 1939. Allen skillfully weaves the minor events of this decade (the fads, books, crimes, machines, gadgets, personalities, movies, fashions, etc.) together
with the major events (the stock market crash, the �Great Depression�, and �the New Deal�) in a delightfully entertaining, informative fashion - assuming, of course, that you
enjoy American history!
The '29 crash had been immediately preceded by the �Big Bull� market that had carried investors and stocks onward and upward for some 2 years before it finally peaked. Investors, by then, were �programmed� to buy, buy, buy. All feared that they might miss one last opportunity to get richer. Stock transactions sometimes became so hectic that Wall Street could not keep up with the paperwork (no computers!). Some pundits of that
day were issuing warnings that stock prices were overvalued, that investors were investing too much borrowed money, but few investors were heeding these warnings. When stock prices began falling, nothing could stop them. By the time stock values hit
bottom on 13 November investors had lost enough money to finance World War I once, or pay off the national debt twice! In a matter of months 25% of the work force was unemployed; many of them were now standing in the ubiquitous breadlines, or peddling
apples for 5 cents on street corners.
The market crash triggered another major event of the �30�s - the �great depression�. President Hoover insisted that the economy was only experiencing one of those �cyclical
business cycles�, that it would eventually �self-correct�, and that life in America would again be just great. He approved some actions to aid businessmen and failing banks, and
to create some jobs by expanding some federal work programs, but basically Hoover opposed any kind of relief for the unemployed or their families. The government, he thought, should do nothing to damage Americans� �initiative and �rugged individualism�. Later, Hoover approved some expenditures for seed and for animal feed, but vetoed any proposals to help the cold, the starving, or the unemployed. Hoover was above all
determined to balance the federal budget and he was certain that nature (and economic problems) would eventually run its course and that his �hands off� (laissez-faire) economic policy would prove to be the proper government response to the depression.
Between the crash of �29 and the presidential election of 1932, however, there was no visible improvement in the economy. Consequently, Hoover�s defeat in the upcoming 1932 election was preordained. That�s what happened; Franklin Delano Roosevelt
became president.
FDR and Hoover had diametrically opposed views with regard to the federal government�s role vis-à-vis the national economy and the depression. Once elected FDR immediately launched his various (alphabet soup-like) �New Deal� programs: they
included the NRA (to deal with economic planning, wages and working conditions, child and women�s labor, etc.), the CWA and the WPA (to provide jobs); the AAA (to deal with farm problems); the CCC (to provide jobs related to environmental protection, tree planting, etc.); the PWA and the TWA (to build dams - thereby creating jobs, electricity, water for irrigation, flood controls, etc.). He also created the RFC, the FHA, the FCA,
the NYA, etc., etc. FDR was unafraid to create a government agency to deal with a problem. �If one approach fails (frequently the case)�, he would say, �We�ll try another.�
�The unemployed�, he maintained, are not bums! They are victims of an economy over which they have no control.� (A 1933 congressional investigation - a la Enron, Anderson, et al) indicated that the crash had to a considerable extent been generated by �wheeling-dealing� brokers, bankers, financiers, corporate managers and their pyramiding
schemes, mergers, etc.). FDR�s role model cousin, Theodore Roosevelt, had said earlier that it was the government�s responsibility to protect those who were unable to protect
themselves. FDR, in turn, said something similar, using different words: �It is not the government�s duty to further enrich those who already have much, but, rather, to assist
those who have little.� FDR�s words resonated with most Americans. They re-elected him again, again, and again. The Republicans soon recognized that FDR and his Democratic �New Deal� programs were basically anathema to what Republicans stood
for (small federal government, low taxes, etc.), and they began fighting FDR and his programs (the Democratic-Republican fight that FDR started continues to this ... Read More
Rated by buyers 
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The best thing about this book is that unlike most other ones about the depression it was written by someone who experienced it at the time they experienced it - 1939. Spanning 1929 to 1939 it gives you a you-were-there feeling.
Most of the political commentary is just matter-of-fact with very little bias. Many depression books seem to be left-leaning and written by authors with political agendas, not this one. The fact is that many things actually were very corrupt in the years leading up to the depression.
Allen obviously liked FDR very much and yet he still always countered accolades for him with opposing opinions and even agrees with them at times.
This is not a hard-hitting expose' of the Depression years, but it is a highly informative book that is a great lesson in history.
Rated by buyers -
Allen covers the period from September 3, 1929, to September 3, 1939. Interestingly, the very first date is when the Bull Market reached its peak, and the last date is when England and France declared war on Germany. The book is an excellent contemporary account of the 1930's. The topics that Allen thought were noteworthy in 1939 are still noteworthy today. Anyone who reads this book should also read "Only Yesterday" which is Allen's account of the 1920's.
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