In Review

04 July 2009 08:10 BST

The Great Crash: How the Stock Market Crash of 1929 Plunged the World into Depression by Selwyn Parker

Published by Piatkus , out now, paperback, £12.99.

b>In a nutshell...

Engaging, revealing, scary

What's it all about?

As the world's banks crash, Selwyn Parker looks at the story behind the crash of 1929 and the resulting depression. He reveals what was said in the corridors of power, the moves the bankers made and failed to make, the arguments over just letting the bad parts of the economy die, and the suffering on the streets around the world from Scottish shipyards to New Zealand farms.

The Great Crash takes the reader from the orgies of debt of the 1920s, collapse of the stock market, worldwide depression, rise of extremism and the solutions that took the world out the other side.

Who's it by?

Kiwi Selwyn Parker is a former journalist how has now turned to chronicling the history of the 20th century. He has spent 20 years on the book and lives in Scotland. Last year he published Chasing the Chimney Sweep, a 1,250-mile bicycle journey tracing the route of the original Tour de France in 1903.

Read more about Parker and his views of the 1929 crash and today's financial crises at myfinances.co.uk.

As an example...

"In New York, brokers and bankers rushed down to the exchange and, finding no room inside, gathered on steps outside. They spilled on to the road stunned by the turn of events... They stayed there for hours, hoping for a reversal that might save them from ruin... everybody was looking for a ray of light.

"Finally someone rushed out of the building to shout that the market was steadying. The crown held their breath."

What the others say

"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." - Telegraph

So is it any good?

The events of the last month have shocked and stunned us all. But reading The Great Crash on the tube to my day job as a financial journalist I ended up confused about what was 2008 and what was 1929.

The endless manoeuvring in the corridors of power and the gentlemen's clubs of 1929 seem to be repeating now, as HBOS and AIG are saved but Lehman Brothers is dropped. Parker perfectly captures the false dawn after false dawn of 1929 into the Great Depression, just as today we told the latest development will hold back the tide but still banks fall and stock markets see double digit drops.

As well as exploring the political upheaval, from the rise of Nazism to Communism on the banks of the Clyde and the Battle of Cable Street, Parker looks at the personalities around the world behind the Depression and those who lengthened it and pushed millions into poverty on baseless theories.

At the time, the major argument was between the liquidationists, claiming the best way forward let the rotten parts of the economy die, and those seeking to push more spending to kickstart the economies of the world. Today, we see the same discussions, with some claiming bad banks should just collapse, while others push for mammoth spending.

The Great Crash is an insightful read filled with plenty of lessons to be learnt. It is also an enjoyable book, with Parker able to bring the drama of the events of 90 years ago. But it is the small stories that bring the history to life. One favourite is multiplier theory - and how spending gets a nation out of recession - explained by the Japanese finance minister through the finances of a geisha house or how Navy cutbacks led to a sailors' strike and panic that took sterling off the gold standard.

Parker's tale is lively, funny, and a marvellous read.

As the world's banking system crashes around us today, the one great lesson to take from this book is that history is repeating itself - with problems once again due to debt piling up onto of debt and investors shielded from the true value of what they were putting cash into - and that we are set for a long journey.

8/10

Daniel Barnes