Many people were worried that speculation had overtaken good sense in the rapid rise of share prices in the New York Stock Exchange, including President Hoover.
But for every naysayer, you could find two experts hailing the ever-rising stock market as merely an indicator of how modern technology was leading the US to permanent prosperity. Nevertheless, the naysayers were proved right in October 1929.
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Fanfare
Opening Theme
Symphony No. 9 in D minor
Composed in 1824 by Ludwig van Beethoven. Public domain.
Performed by the Skidmore College Orchestra. Public domain recording. Source.
Closing Theme
Except when otherwise indicated, the contents of this podcast are © and ℗ 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 by Mark Painter, all rights reserved. Some music and sound effects used by arrangement with Pond 5.
Curious as to why you decided not to discuss Lindbergh’s flight in your coverage of the 1920s.
He came up on one of the radio episodes. The feat itself isn’t so impressive as to merit its own episode.
Joseph, thank you for replying, I forgot Mark briefly mentioned Lindbergh’s flight in Episode 238. Mark’s comments there about the flight more than explain why he didn’t spend more time on Lindbergh. I agree with Mark and you that the reaction to the flight was out of all proportion to the feat itself. I’ve never been a fan of Charles Lindbergh. I do admire Anne Morrow Lindbergh’s memoir, “Hour of Gold, Hour of Lead.” Her real time diary entries and letters are well written, insightful, and heartbreaking. She was a perceptive observer of her own feelings and of others.
That’s right. I did mention it, but I didn’t make a big deal out of it because I don’t really think it was that important. The fact that it got so much attention at the time is (I think) more interesting for what it says about the rise of mass media than for the flight itself. The first actual transatlantic flight had been flown eight years earlier, and no one remembers the names of those pilots. I am not done with Lindbergh, though. I want to talk about the kidnapping case and the America First movement, but I’m saving those topics for 1940.