num_pages: 402
description: Heralded by the New York Times as a shrewd concise wonderfully written account of America in the 30s . . . a reminder of why history matters the bestselling sequel to Only Yesterday illuminates the events that brought America back from the brink Published in 1940 Since Yesterday takes up where Lewiss classic leaves off. Opening on September 3 1929 in the days before the stock market crash this information-packed volume takes us through one of Americas darkest times all the way to the light at the end of the tunnel. Following Black Tuesday America plunged into the Great Depression. Panic and fear gripped the nation. Banks were closing everywhere. In some cities 84 percent of the population was unemployed and starving. When Franklin D. Roosevelt took office in 1933 public confidence in the nation slowly began to grow and by 1936 the industrial average which had plummeted in 1929 from 125 to fifty-eight had risen again to almost one hundred. But America still had a long road ahead. Popular historian Frederick Lewis Allen brings to life these ten critical years. With wit and empathy he draws a devastating economic picture of small businesses swallowed up by large corporationsa ruthless bottom line not so different from what we see today. Allen also chronicles the decades lighter side: the fashions morals sports and candid cameras that were revolutionizing Americans lives. From the Lindbergh kidnapping to the New Deal from the devastating dust storms that raged through our farmlands to the rise of Benny Goodman the public adoration of Shirley Temple and our mass escape to the movies this book is a hopeful and powerful reminder of why history matters.
language: English
title: Since Yesterday: The 1930s in America, September 3, 1929–September 3, 1939
publisher: Open Road Media