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temporarily halting the rout and earning the title of ‘Wall Street’s White Knight’ – but was eventually convicted of embezzlement and jailed. On the party-pooper side – widely
ignored while the going was good – were the officials of the Federal Reserve, America’s central bank, repeatedly trying to curb lending for speculation; and Senator Carter Glass, Democrat from Virginia, who considered the stock market ‘a tax on American prosperity’ and coined the term ‘Mitchellism’ for the bankers’ willingness to offer loan facilities that allowed punters to buy $100 worth of shares with as little as $10 of their own money. This was the Glass who gave his name (alongside that of Rep. Henry Steagall of Alabama) to the 1933 Act which kept commercial and investment banking safely separated – until its 1999 repeal signed by Bill Clinton, laying the ground, many economists argue, for the credit-driven follies of the next decade. Sorkin eavesdrops on his cast in their meetings and mansions but ultimately lets the reader judge where guilt lay for the cataclysm – and whether or not it was the predominant cause of the Depression that followed. This is at heart a story about Americans, told in a very American style: bite-sized chapters, each built around a single day’s developments, composed largely of short sentences and terse reconstructed dialogue between leading men. If his narrative lacks a little for background colour, Sorkin might perhaps have found more voices from the streets like that of Pat Bologna, the ‘bootblack with a reputation as a tipster’ who had his life savings of $5,000 riding on the market. The British reader might wonder how,
say, the outstanding City historian and master of social minutiae David Kynaston would have made a broader collage of recollections to tell the same story. But Sorkin’s prose has the great merits of clarity and forward drive and, most importantly, it’s exactly what his readers expect. 1929 is an epic exercise in bringing history to life through its big characters. Like Too Big to Fail it will be labelled ‘definitive’ – and deservedly so. Martin Vander Weyer is business editor of the Spectator
Nota bene
The Seven Rules of Trust By Jimmy Wales (Bloomsbury, £22, from 28 October)
The principle upon which Jimmy Wales founded Wikipedia in 2001 was a simple one: trust between users. As the creator of the website that has become arguably the most important source of information on the planet, Wales has an interesting perspective on truth and credibility – at a time when both are frequently threatened. Wales calls trust ‘today’s most essential superpower’, and in The Seven Rules of Trust for building trust in every aspect of life.
Bag Man By Lew Frankfort (Harvard Business Review, £25, from 14 Oct)
The son of a Bronx policeman, Lew Frankfort spent 35 years working at fashion house Coach, starting out in 1979 as the founder’s assistant and rising to become chairman and CEO from 1985 to 2014, as well as being named one of Barron’s ‘30 most respected CEOs around the world’. In Bag Man, he recounts the rise of the leather-bag maker into a world-class luxury lifestyle brand (whose sales story of ambition and resilience.
I Shop, Therefore I Am By Mary Portas (Canongate Books, £20)
Although designer emporium Harvey Nichols faces new challenges today, it was once a shining star of British luxury retail, known for its avant-garde style and bold marketing store’s iconic status – and window displays – was ‘Queen of Shops’ Mary Portas. Before she was a TV star, Portas was the store’s creative director during the Nineties. Here she takes us back to Harvey Nicks’ golden era with humour, glitz, glamour and, sometimes, a bit of brutality too.
John Vanbrugh: The Drama of Architecture By Charles Saumarez Smith (Lund H’phries, £29.99, from 20 Nov)
life, it is only natural that it should be explored through their personal story. This is undoubtedly what Charles Saumarez Smith had in mind when writing the biography of Sir John Vanbrugh, the architect of Castle Howard and Blenheim Palace, known for his strong political views and parallel career as a provocative playwright. This book digs into his letters, beliefs, and professional practice to offer a glimpse into the man behind the buildings.
Book previews by Livia Giannotti
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