Oct. 29, 2007 marks the 78th anniversary of “Black Tuesday,” often referred to as the start of the Great Depression. With that backdrop, treat yourself to Mackinac Center president Larry Reed’s essay “Great Myths of the Great Depression” for a succinct review of the government policies that helped lead to, and needlessly prolonged, that bleak time.

For the hardy, refer to Murray Rothbard’s tome, America’s Great Depression. All 400 or so pages are available on-line from the Mises Institute.

Another book on the topic, though I have not read it, is Amity Shlaes recently published The Forgotten Man: A New History of the Great Depression. Like the aforementioned writers, Shlaes challenges the conventional wisdom of the times and Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal.