Sunday, September 28, 2008

THE GREAT CRASH
Selwyn Parker
Little Brown. pds.12.99

It's a great time to retell the classic story of the Great Crash of 1929, says Dominic Sandbrook writing in the Telegraph.

The Wall Street Crash has become the paradigmatic case of boom turning into bust, and few people have not heard the stories of ticker-machines running out of control, brokers hurling themselves from high windows, savings disappearing up in smoke, and the cocktail parties of the Roaring Twenties suddenly turning into the dole queues of the Hungry Thirties.

Given the events of the past few weeks, Selwyn Parker's sprightly new history could hardly be better timed.
If nothing else, Parker's account of the Crash of 1929 bears out Mark Twain's famous remark that if history does not repeat itself, it certainly rhymes.
Read the full story at the Telegraph online.
FOOTNOTE
The author is a well known New Zealand journalist & writer who these days lives mainly in the UK and Queensland. The book will be released in NZ by Hachette LIvre in December - RRP $40
The book was also reviewed extensively in The Mail.

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