About the Author

Mury Klein is Professor of History, University of Rhode Island

Reviews

"Klein tells the story of the crash clearly and well, with some especially good pen portraits of characters such as Thomas Lamont, Jesse Livermore, Charley Mitchell and Albert Wiggin (who actually made money short-selling)."--The Economist
"A remarkable blend of sharp-eyed business history and keen cultural analysis, Rainbow's End paints the most compelling picture yet of the stock-market crash of 1929. In Maury Klein's able hands, the story of the crash ends up illuminating not just Wall Street in the Jazz Age, but America as well. Boom and bust: Klein gives us both, in all their intoxicating and hysterical glory."--James Surowiecki, The New Yorker
"Land crooks...delusional bank chairman...high-rolling speculators....The woes of the local shoe-shine man and Groucho Marx get mentioned, too....Klein offers a swift survey of the lunatic optimism of Wall Street and how it all turned to dust in the closing days of October....Each chapter resonates with the follies of today."--The Wall Street Journal
"Well-written, entertaining and detailed....Klein shows how optimism gradually spawned financial euphoria."--Robert J. Samuelson, The New York Times Book Review
"Who better than Maury Klein to write an engaging history of the stock market crash of 1929 and the way its enthusiasms and traumas burned their way into the American experience? Here is a tale whose ending we already know, yet he rivets attention by weaving compelling vignettes into a dramatic narrative. [T]here is something new for everyone in Rainbow's End."--Pamela Waer Laird, Professor of History, University of Colorado, The Journal of American
History
"The great crash of 1929 was one of those sharp breaks in the stream of time when all who were living knew immediately that their world had changed. Many, of course, have written of the crash, but few as well or as authoritatively as Maury Klein in Rainbow's End. He brings a historian's perspective to a complex story while retaining the sense of immediacy that made those terrible days some of the most exciting in American history."--John Steele Gordon,
author of The Great Game: The Emergence of Wall Street As a World Power
"A well-written, comprehensible assessment of the 1929 stock-market crash. Klein is an elegant constructor of business histories, and one can read dire warnings between the lines here. A most timely business narrative."--Kirkus
"Klein helps readers better understand the reaction of millions to an event that shook the world....A timely publication."--Library Journal
"Klein's accessible view of the cultural and social history of Wall Street and the US during a pivotal decade is recommended for all libraries."--CHOICE

"Klein tells the story of the crash clearly and well, with some especially good pen portraits of characters such as Thomas Lamont, Jesse Livermore, Charley Mitchell and Albert Wiggin (who actually made money short-selling)."--The Economist "A remarkable blend of sharp-eyed business history and keen cultural analysis, Rainbow's End paints the most compelling picture yet of the stock-market crash of 1929. In Maury Klein's able hands, the story of the crash ends up illuminating not just Wall Street in the Jazz Age, but America as well. Boom and bust: Klein gives us both, in all their intoxicating and hysterical glory."--James Surowiecki, The New Yorker "Land crooks...delusional bank chairman...high-rolling speculators....The woes of the local shoe-shine man and Groucho Marx get mentioned, too....Klein offers a swift survey of the lunatic optimism of Wall Street and how it all turned to dust in the closing days of October....Each chapter resonates with the follies of today."--The Wall Street Journal "Well-written, entertaining and detailed....Klein shows how optimism gradually spawned financial euphoria."--Robert J. Samuelson, The New York Times Book Review "Who better than Maury Klein to write an engaging history of the stock market crash of 1929 and the way its enthusiasms and traumas burned their way into the American experience? Here is a tale whose ending we already know, yet he rivets attention by weaving compelling vignettes into a dramatic narrative. [T]here is something new for everyone in Rainbow's End."--Pamela Waer Laird, Professor of History, University of Colorado, The Journal of American History "The great crash of 1929 was one of those sharp breaks in the stream of time when all who were living knew immediately that their world had changed. Many, of course, have written of the crash, but few as well or as authoritatively as Maury Klein in Rainbow's End. He brings a historian's perspective to a complex story while retaining the sense of immediacy that made those terrible days some of the most exciting in American history."--John Steele Gordon, author of The Great Game: The Emergence of Wall Street As a World Power "A well-written, comprehensible assessment of the 1929 stock-market crash. Klein is an elegant constructor of business histories, and one can read dire warnings between the lines here. A most timely business narrative."--Kirkus "Klein helps readers better understand the reaction of millions to an event that shook the world....A timely publication."--Library Journal "Klein's accessible view of the cultural and social history of Wall Street and the US during a pivotal decade is recommended for all libraries."--CHOICE

The first serious account of the Crash of 1929 was Only Yesterday, by Frederick Lewis Allen, published less than two years after the event and still in print. Disappointingly, Klein's effort is almost a chapter-by-chapter retelling of Only Yesterday, adding some research from the last 70 years but lacking Allen's firsthand knowledge and writing skill. Klein (The Life and Legend of Stephen Jay Gould) is an academic historian. His prose is pleasant enough, but he dashes hope of depth or rigor with the claim that the Crash cannot be explained by economics, or indeed by any observable historical forces, but by a change in national mood. This assumption permits him to focus on such topics as baseball batting averages, flagpole sitting and hemlines between 1900 and 1928. He also explores the "irrational exuberance" fostered by the period's colorful Wall Street personalities, men like Sunshine Charley Mitchell, the great, attention-seeking bond trader who headed National City Bank. Provocatively, he also observes the period's preoccupation with escape newly available through the automobile, the motion picture, sports and television and its economic impact.Yet Gordon Thomas and Max Morgan Witts analyzed the culture of the period more effectively in The Day the Bubble Burst. (Oct. 29) Forecast: There are many books on the 1929 market crash, but John Kenneth Galbraith's innovative and engaging The Great Crash of 1929 easily remains the best account for the general reader; those already knowledgeable about the Crash will find this account wanting. Klein is a prominent business historian, however, and the topic should garner some review coverage and sales. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.