The Roaring Twenties, jazz music, Hollywood glamour - the end of World
War I ushered in a golden age for America, with a booming stock market
and rampant property speculation. It seemed as if - with President
Harding and then President Coolidge in charge - the good times would
never end. In marked contrast were the fortunes of many European
countries, which were struggling to repay war debts while the terms of
the Treaty of Versailles were plunging Germany into economic
catastrophe. Later, with Herbert Hoover as President, the US markets
continued to climb, even though some investors began to sell, sensing
trouble ahead. The stock market crash came in October 1929, and America
slid into deep depression. Against a background of bank failures,
industrial decline, rural poverty, and unemployment, there was an
outbreak of protests, strikes, and riots. Hoover was swept from power in
1932, and it fell to the new President, Franklin D. Roosevelt, to revive
America's fortunes with a number of ground-breaking new programs which
made up the New Deal. Dark Realities covers this turbulent period in
America's history. The book introduces the key figures of this time
period and reveals the impact that the Great Depression had on the
American people. *** "Written to be accessible to lay readers and
historians alike....a straightforward chronicle of some of the bleakest
years in America's history. Dark Realities is an excellent
contribution....highly recommended especially for public and college
library collections." - Midwest Book Review, Library Bookwatch, March
2013, American History Shelf
