The Forgotten Man Shlaes

The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression, by Amity Shlaes is a graphic novel that captures a period in the history of America that was dark. This dark period in the history of America was the Depression that lasted from 1929 to 1940. Some of the main characters in The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression are, Calvin Coolidge Vice President, and then he became President when President Harding died, Herbert Hoover the president during the early years of the Great Depression, Andrew Mellon treasury secretary, Wendell Willkie president of Commonwealth and Southern, Bill Wilson founder of the Alcoholics Anonymous group, and Franklin Roosevelt. In early 1927 utilities were driving the economy and businesses were booming. Stock prices were on the rise. Then in October 1929 the economy took a turn for the worse. The Great Depression began. There was a decline in the economy, the stock prices crashed. Shlaes uses this graphic novel to bring to life the Great Depression by capturing personal stories of the …show more content…
The United States output declined and the unemployment rate increased. People were working and not getting paid. Banks were failing during this period. This caused people to become broke. One out of every Five men became jobless in the winter of 1931. Franklin Roosevelt gets elected in 1932. The novel shows his idea for a New Deal for America. This deal is supposed to help the American people with the negative impacts that the Great Depression is bringing on to them. The slump in the economy went on and on and everyone was just trying to get by in life. The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression talks about the Forgotten man in America. The Forgotten man is, “The man who pays,” the man who is part of the bottom of the pyramid in economics, and he is, “The man who is never thought of.” Shlaes shows how both President Hoover and President Roosevelt weighed down the United