Hard Times: Economic Depressions in America

In this concise overview of economic depressions in the United States, Striner, a professor of history at Washington College, highlights the boom-and-bust nature of economic growth, paying special attention to the role of financial panics in precipitating economic contractions. Striner begins in colonial times and covers the bank wars of the antebellum period and the tide of populist anger embodied by the “Greenbackers,” who advocated increasing the country’s money supply with non-gold-backed currency, before devoting three chapters to the Great Depression and its lessons. The final section sketches an intellectual history of the two major schools in economic thinking—Keynesianism and monetarism—before concluding with reflections on the Great Recession of 2008, which, he writes, “began... in much the same manner” as previous economic disasters, with ill-conceived practices in the financial sector. Striner is a lucid guide to economic history, explaining fractional reserve banking and the workings of financial panics with ease. He keeps innovations in money and banking at the heart of the narrative, lending it analytical heft. But in attempting to strike a balance between a scholarly work and an accessible introduction, however, the book falters, not fully becoming either one. Despite these flaws, this intelligent and scrupulous account imparts a detailed knowledge of U.S. depressions and the political and economic responses they generated. (July)