by Christian Boyles

February 2018

A History of the United States in Five Crashes
HB3722 .N39 2017

About the Book

In this absorbing, smart, and accessible blend of economic and cultural history, Scott Nations, a longtime trader, financial engineer, and CNBC contributor, takes us on a journey through the five significant stock market crashes in the past century to reveal how they defined the United States today.

The stories behind the great crashes are filled with drama, human foibles, and heroic rescues. Taken together they tell the larger story of a nation reaching enormous heights of financial power while experiencing precipitous dips that alter and reset a market where millions of Americans invest their savings, and on which they depend for their futures. Scott Nations vividly shows how each of these major crashes played a role in America’s political and cultural fabric, each providing painful lessons that have strengthened us and helped us to build the nation we know today.

A History of the United States in Five Crashes clearly and compellingly illustrates the connections between these major financial collapses and examines the solid, clear-cut lessons they offer for preventing the next one.

Is it checked out?  Don’t worry about it.  Here are some other titles on the subject.

Inside Job (DVD) HB3722 .I57 2011: Provides an analysis of the global financial crisis of 2008, which at a cost of over $20 trillion, caused millions of people to lose their jobs and homes in the worst recession since the Great Depression, and nearly resulted in a global financial collapse. Through exhaustive research, and extensive interviews with key financial insiders, politicians, journalists, and academics, traces the rise of a rogue industry which has corrupted politics, regulation, and academia.

Booms and Busts: an encyclopedia of economic history from Tulipmania of the 1630s to the global financial crisis of the 21st century. (ebook): This authoritative set explores three centuries of good times and hard times in major economies throughout the world. More than 400 signed articles cover events from Tulipmania during the 1630s to the U.S. federal stimulus package of 2009, and introduce readers to underlying concepts, recurring themes, major institutions, and notable figures. Written in a clear, accessible style, “Booms and Busts” provides vital insight and perspective for students, teachers, librarians, and the general public – anyone interested in understanding the historical precedents, causes, and effects of the global economic crisis. 

After the music stopped: the financial crisis, the response, and the work ahead. HB3717 2008 .B55 2013: Many fine books on the financial crisis were first drafts of history–books written quickly to fill the need for immediate understanding. Alan S. Blinder, former vice chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, takes the time to understand the crisis and create a truly comprehensive and coherent narrative of how the worst economic crisis in postwar American history happened, what the government did to fight it, and what we must do from here–mired as we still are in its wreckage. Blinder shows how the U.S. financial system, grown far too complex for its own good–and too unregulated for the public good–experienced a perfect storm beginning in 2007. When America’s financial structure crumbled, the damage proved to be not only deep, but wide. It took the crisis for the world to discover, to its horror, just how truly interconnected–and fragile–the global financial system is. Blinder offers clear-eyed answers to the questions still before us, even if some of the choices ahead are as divisive as they are unavoidable.