From the bestselling author of Too Big to Fail, comes a riveting, fly-on-the-wall account of the most infamous stock market crash in history
In 1929, the world watched in shock as the unstoppable Wall Street bull market went into a freefall, wiping out fortunes and igniting a depression that would reshape a generation. But behind the flashing ticker tapes and panicked traders, another drama unfolded-one of visionaries and fraudsters, titans and dreamers, euphoria and ruin.
With unparalleled access to historical records and newly uncovered documents, New York Times bestselling author Andrew Ross Sorkin takes readers inside the chaos of the crash, behind the scenes of a raging battle between Wall Street and Washington and the larger-than-life characters whose ambition and naivety in an endless boom led to wreckage. The dizzying highs and brutal lows of this era eerily mirror today's world-where markets soar, political tensions mount, and the fight over financial influence plays out once again.
This is not just a story about money. 1929 is a tale of power, psychology, and the seductive illusion that "this time is different." It's about disregarded alarm bells, financiers who fell from grace, and skeptics who saw the crash coming-only to be dismissed until it was too late.
Hailed as a landmark book, Too Big to Fail reimagined how financial crises are told. Now, with 1929, Sorkin delivers an immersive, electrifying account of the most pivotal market collapse of all time-with lessons that remain as urgent as ever. More than just a history, 1929 is a crucial blueprint for understanding the cycles of speculation, the forces that drive financial upheaval, and the warning signs we ignore at our peril.
*The Atlantic Monthly
About the Author
Andrew Ross Sorkin is the award-winning chief mergers and acquisitions reporter for The New York Times, a columnist, and assistant editor of business and finance news. He is also the editor and founder of DealBook, an online daily financial report. He has won a Gerald Loeb Award, the highest honor in business journalism, and a Society of American Business Editors and Writers Award. In 2007, the World Economic Forum named him a Young Global Leader.
Industry Reviews
In this glorious account of the 1929 crash, Andrew Ross Sorkin conjures up the mad euphoria, crushing collapse, and subsequent political reckoning with equal finesse. He tells the story through a rich cast of unforgettable characters and resists the urge to portray them as simple heroes or villains so much as flawed people lost in a calamity almost beyond their comprehension. This converts his saga into a timeless cautionary tale that speaks to the present no less than the past
— Ron Chernow, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Washington
Andrew Ross Sorkin has done it again. 1929 is mesmerizing from beginning to end—a deeply important book. Like Too Big to Fail, it’s a masterclass in narrative nonfiction, a dazzling tale of a pivotal moment in history brought to life through meticulous reporting. The colorful characters, the politics, the financial mania—it all unfolds with eerie relevance. You feel like you’re reading about today. I was blown away
— Walter Isaacson, New York Times bestselling author of Steve Jobs and Benjamin Franklin
In Andrew Ross Sorkin’s fresh and revealing telling, the stock market crash of 1929 becomes a great human drama, full of contingency and misunderstanding, friends and enemies, courage and fear, greed and generosity. Out of that financial catastrophe came many of the institutions and ideas that we still turn to in moments of crisis. But as Sorkin shows, even those with the greatest wealth and power and experience can still be caught off guard by the twists and turns of history
— Beverly Gage, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of G-Man
With a storyteller’s eye and an expert’s grasp of detail, Andrew Ross Sorkin has given us an engaging and memorable account of one of the largest events in American history—the Crash of 1929. In Sorkin’s gifted hands, this is a human drama with profound consequences for democracy and for capitalism—and it is a reminder of the fragility of the things we like to think are invulnerable.
— Jon Meacham, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of American Lion
When a story of immense historical gravity—the drama and trauma of 1929—meets a writer steeped in its scholarship and gifted with a rare clarity of vision, the result is a work of lasting resonance: tangible and immediate. In 1929, Andrew Ross Sorkin captures the moment when ambition, greed, and speculative euphoria collided to plunge America into an economic abyss, sparking the Great Depression. Through vivid storytelling and a cast of powerfully rendered characters, Sorkin reveals a nation at the breaking point—grappling with denial, reckoning, and the steep cost of excess. It’s a haunting elegy for a fractured era, and a timeless reminder that progress is fragile, choices have repercussions, and the flaws embedded in the human condition are ours to confront
— Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of No Ordinary Time
