Galbraith wrote the book during a break from working on the manuscript of what would become The Affluent Society. Galbraith was asked by Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. if he would write the definitive work … See more

The Florida land boom of the 1920s established the mood "and the conviction that God intended the American middle classes to be rich," a sentiment so strong that it survived the ensuing crash of … See more

In the wake of Black Tuesday, London newspapers reported that ruined speculators were throwing themselves from windows but Galbraith asserts there was no substance to these claims of widespread suicides. Embezzlement now came to the fore. … See more

Contrary to what had been Wall Street's perceived tendency in playing down its influence, Galbraith asserted the important contribution of the 1929 crash on the Great Depression which followed: causing a contraction of demand for goods, destroying for a … See more

Galbraith was of the opinion that the Great Crash had burned itself so deeply into the national consciousness that America had been spared another bubble up to the present time (1954).; however he thought the chances of another speculative orgy which … See more

In 2008 and 2009, Jim Cramer took to waving John Kenneth Galbraith's book, and praising it on his show Mad Money. He has been struck by the similarities between the crash described by Galbraith and the crash occurring in the Late 2000s recession See more

Revised editions of the book, each time with updated research and a more timely version of the introduction, were published in 1961, 1972, 1988, 1997 and 2009. See more