"1929, Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History" | Reviewed by Bill Schwab

Andrew Ross Sorkin chronicles in striking detail the story of greed, corruption, and incompetence associated with the October 1929 New York Stock Exchange crash. His latest book, “1929,” reads like a true crime story, focusing on the lives of 75 key figures who watched as the stock market went into free fall and their fortunes collapsed.

  The personal experience of "Sunshine Charlie" Mitchell, the president of National City Bank of New York, sets a recurring theme of the titans who lived through rapture and ruin. Mitchell began his career at the bank's stock and bond subsidiary when National City was the biggest U.S. bank. Rising through the ranks, he introduced new banking products that offered every kind of financial service available at the time. He helped customers invest in stocks when stocks quadrupled in just one year.

When the Federal Reserve tried to cool the stock market in early 1929, Mitchell's bank lent money to support the overheated market, in an effort to undermine the government's efforts to put an end to speculation. Senator Carter Glass of Virginia called Mitchell's action a "mutiny" and, when the market crashed, maintained that the market failed because it had confused traditional banking and stock trading.

Coincidentally, Winston Churchill was in the Wall Street gallery on a day when one of the worst market meltdowns occurred.

Churchill watched as "under my very window a gentleman cast himself down 15 stories and was dashed to pieces, causing a wild commotion and the arrival of the fire brigade." Later, at a dinner held in his honor, Churchill stood up and offered a toast: "To my former millionaires." He further entertained the guests by describing the trading floor as looking like a "disturbed ant heap."

Sorkin's series of incidents includes a behind-the-scenes tour of Wall Street boardrooms and Plaza Hotel cocktail parties. He does not categorize the major players as heroes or villains, but as flawed people mired in a calamity beyond their ability to comprehend.

The author's storytelling skill, in-depth research, and narrative style make 1929 a page-turner. With access to historical records and newly uncovered documents, "1929" offers new insights into the crash and its aftermath. It is an account of power, psychology, and the ruse that "this time is different." It is about the warnings that stockbrokers discounted and the ruination of financial advisors' reputations.

One of the book's chief takeaways is that market patterns repeat. Stock markets evolve, technologies change, but human greed, fear, and overconfidence remain constant, making the book's message relevant to today's market whims. Sorkin's work is a summary of the phases of speculation that drive economic crises, along with the cautionary signs that investors ignore at their own peril.

About the author: Andrew Ross Sorkin is a journalist for The New York Times and a co-anchor of CNBC's Squawk Box. He is the founder and editor at large of DealBook, an online daily financial report published by The New York Times. Sorkin is the best-selling author of "Too Big to Fail" and the co-producer of the 2011 film adaptation, which was nominated for 11 Emmy Awards.

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