Listen free for 30 days

Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo + applicable taxes after 30 days. Cancel anytime.
The Great Depression cover art

The Great Depression

Written by: James Ledbetter, Daniel B. Roth
Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
Try for $0.00

$14.95 a month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $37.53

Buy Now for $37.53

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Tax where applicable.

Publisher's Summary

This title offers a first-person diary account of living through the Great Depression, with haunting parallels to our own time.

Benjamin Roth was born in New York City in 1894. When the stock market crashed in 1929, he had been practicing law for approximately 10 years, largely representing local businesses. After nearly two years, he began to grasp the magnitude of what had happened to American economic life, and he began writing down his impressions in a diary that he maintained intermittently until he died in 1978.

Roth's words from that unique time seem to speak directly to readers today. His perceptions and experiences have a chilling similarity to our own era. Like many of us, Roth struggles both to understand and to educate himself about what was going on around him. He is sceptical of big government, yet ultimately won over by FDR's New Deal. This collection of his diary entries, edited by James Ledbetter, editor of Slate's "The Big Money," 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 anxiety about the unknown future. It is highly topical - and timely.

The greatest financial disaster since the Great Depression has many Americans wondering what things were like as the Great Depression unfolded and people did not yet know how or when it would end. It is clear-eyed, readable - and eerily familiar.

In short, concise, and thoughtful entries, Roth chronicles the most telling moments of the Great Depression, from the drop in the price of movie tickets to Hoover's failed free-market solutions, to the rise in foreclosures in his hometown and how to benefit from 'bargains' at the much-diminished stock exchange. It is published one-year after the bankruptcy of Lehman Bros sent the world markets on a deep downward slide, and around the 80th anniversary of "Black Tuesday".

©2009 PublicAffairs (P)2009 Audible, Inc.
  • Unabridged Audiobook
  • Categories: History

What listeners say about The Great Depression

Average Customer Ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    12
  • 4 Stars
    7
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    3
  • 3 Stars
    1
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    11
  • 4 Stars
    1
  • 3 Stars
    2
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Fascinating look at the depression

I bought this book because the economic situation that arises because of the pandemic has me very interested in how things were during the 1930s, as I imagined a lot of parallels. I very much enjoyed Roth's record of his experience, as it is so closely focused on the economic situation, which is a very different treatment than just talking about his own personal life. It's a very unusual and enjoyable book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wow it's very real for me in February 2022

OMG! Maybe it's nonsense for people to know about that. But it has been a long time since I bought this book. But until now I didn't want to listen to it.

Why? Because I was not sure if I wanted to know what did happen back then.

It was much worse than what I had expected. OMG!

I thought I was dreaming also. Much more a nightmare right now.

I just saw a report on YouTube from a financial advisor that there is no safe place to invest money. No interest on bank accounts. Inflation at 7%. My salary going up just 1-2 % per year.

I am sure about the exact amount. I just know that it's shit.

Gold, silver and Bitcoin should be safe heavens. Now it's a nightmare. Even traders are scared.

I think that you should all buy this book to know how much rich you are, how good you are right now, how much rich you are compared to the others, how much financially prepared you are, how you can manage money, stress, risks etc

You should buy this book right now.

I am on chapter two until now. More it goes the worst it gets.

It's like listening to what I am living right now.

Much of what I am listening is happening since March 2020 until now.

I don't which to anyone to live this way. Nobody!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!