1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--and How It Shattered a Nation

Andrew Ross Sorkin’s 1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History—and How It Shattered a Nation (2025) is a work of narrative nonfiction that recounts the 1929 stock market crash and its aftermath through the intertwined stories of its most powerful figures. The book details the actions of Wall Street titans like National City Bank chairman Charles Mitchell and J.P. Morgan partner Thomas Lamont, alongside speculators, regulators, and presidents whose ambition, hubris, and miscalculations fueled the speculative bubble of the “Roaring Twenties” and led to a devastating financial collapse that reshaped the American economy. The book explores themes including The Tensions Between Private and Public Stakeholder Interests, The Importance of Political Leadership in Times of Crisis, and The Relationship Between Financial Manipulation, Risk, and Deception.

Sorkin is a prominent financial journalist, working as a columnist for The New York Times, founder of its DealBook platform, and a co-anchor of CNBC’s Squawk Box. Sorkin is co-creator of the Showtime television series Billions and the author of the bestselling book Too Big to Fail (2009), a widely-acclaimed account of the 2008 financial crisis that was adapted into an HBO film. In 1929, Sorkin uses a similar method, drawing on years of archival research—including newly-available Federal Reserve records—to create a character-driven historical narrative. His work in journalism has earned him several honors, including multiple Gerald Loeb Awards.

This guide refers to the 2025 Viking hardcover edition.

Content Warning: This guide and the source text contain references to suicide.

Plot Summary

A flash-forward details the evening of Monday, October 28, 1929. Charles “Sunshine Charlie” Mitchell, the chairman of National City Bank, returns to his office after a 13% drop in the stock market. National City Bank is the largest bank in the US. Hugh Baker, who runs the bank’s stock-trading unit, informs him that in, a desperate bid to support the bank’s stock price, his traders have purchased 71,000 shares of National City stock for approximately $32 million, a sum the bank cannot afford. The purchase was intended to keep the stock price above $450 per share, a crucial condition for National City’s pending acquisition of the Corn Exchange Bank. Because National City lacked the cash to complete the deal if shareholders chose a cash payout, maintaining the stock’s value was paramount. Mitchell realizes the bank is in grave danger, as banking law prohibits a bank from using its own stock as collateral for loans. Selling the shares would trigger a stock collapse and a run on the bank. After a sleepless night, Mitchell devises a plan. The next morning, he tells bank president Gordon Rentschler that he will personally borrow $12 million to buy the shares from the bank, risking his entire fortune to prevent the bank’s collapse.

Some months earlier, on February 1, 1929, Thomas Lamont, a senior partner at J.P. Morgan & Co., and his boss, J.P. “Jack” Morgan Jr., sail to Paris for German war reparations negotiations. Lamont, the son of a church minister, rose to prominence at the House of Morgan after a financial crisis known as the “Panic of 1907.” Before sailing, Lamont’s team offers a “preferred list” of influential figures—including former president, Calvin Coolidge—discounted shares in the new Alleghany Corporation. Aboard the ship, Lamont secretly plots with Owen D. Young of General Electric (GE) to merge International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT), Radio Corporation of America (RCA), and Western Union into a global monopoly. That same month, Charles Mitchell attends his first board meeting at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (“the Fed”), where officials are divided on how to curb rampant speculation. Mitchell, who has transformed National City by marketing stocks and credit to ordinary Americans, opposes raising interest rates further.

Following a market drop on February 16, Mitchell phones William “Billy” Durant, the founder of General Motors and a famed speculator. They agree the Fed’s policies are a threat, and Durant, a known critic of the Fed, resolves to warn incoming president Herbert Hoover. Durant, a master of speculative “pools” that artificially inflate stock prices, believes the Fed should lower interest rates. Mitchell and Durant agree to try to influence Hoover, who is viewed skeptically by Wall Street.

On March 4, Hoover is inaugurated and reappoints Andrew Mellon as Treasury Secretary. Later that month, legendary speculator Jesse Livermore, known for short selling (i.e., betting that stocks will fall), launches a massive operation against what he sees as an overvalued market. On March 26, the market breaks sharply. With the quiet approval of New York Fed Governor George Harrison, Mitchell publicly announces National City will provide credit to avert a panic. The market rallies, and Mitchell is hailed as a hero by Wall Street, but the move infuriates Senator Carter Glass, Wall Street’s fiercest critic. Meanwhile, the secret ITT/RCA merger plan leaks, and the price of RCA stock is further inflated by a manipulative pool—in which investors secretly combine resources to drive stock up or down—run by Michael Meehan. In April 1929, Durant meets with Hoover at the White House, seeking to persuade him to reverse the Fed’s restrictions on brokerage loan and credit, warning him of an impending crash. Hoover is unpersuaded.

On April 12, John J. Raskob plans a forthcoming dinner for the business elite intended to be an “Anti-Hoover Event.” Angered that his preferred candidate, Al Smith, recently lost to Hoover despite Raskob’s sponsorship, Raskob is planning a political and PR campaign to damage Hoover’s term of office.

Having failed to persuade Hoover of his point of view, Durant takes his case public in a radio address on April 14. He blames the Fed for public panic and frames the dispute between the bankers and the Fed as “a great battle” (127). The speech is picked up by the New York Times and garners criticism in Washington, especially from Senators Carter Glass and James Couzens.

Raskob’s anti-Hoover dinner went well and he has been able to halve the party’s debt load. He is annoyed that a newspaper has prematurely reported on his new business venture, Equities Security Company. To forestall this, he issues a press release framing the new company as a way to help ordinary people invest and make money.

Raskob hires journalist Charley Michelson to run a covert publicity campaign against Hoover. As summer begins, Raskob promotes his philosophy that “Everybody Ought to Be Rich” through a planned investment trust for small investors (150).

In Paris, the German reparations talks conclude with the agreement of the “Young Plan,” finalized in June 1929. This success is largely due to the negotiating skill of RCA’s David Sarnoff. Though publicly optimistic, Lamont privately instructs his son to sell off Morgan stocks, fearing market instability.

On Wall Street, the market soars to new highs, and Mitchell makes agreements for his Corn Exchange Bank acquisition. In September 1929, economist Roger Babson’s prediction of a crash causes the temporary “Babson Break,” when the market falls by 3%, but Yale economist Irving Fisher famously declares stocks have reached a “permanently high plateau,” restoring confidence (193). Another sharp break on October 19 triggers widespread margin calls (i.e., the requirement to increase funds or securities in response to falling equity). The exchange stock ticker is unable to keep up with real-time trades, creating information chaos. Livermore resumes shorting the market, reporting publicly on October 21 that the market is overpriced.

On Thursday, October 24, the market opens with a torrent of selling. Panic grips the New York Stock Exchange. At noon, Lamont convenes the heads of the major banks, the “Big Six,” who form a pool of over $200 million to support the market. Richard Whitney, acting president of the Exchange, confidently places a high bid for US Steel, temporarily halting the slide. The market rallies but still closes with heavy losses. After a stable session the next day, the market plunges again on Monday, October 28, losing 13%. That evening, Mitchell learns of his bank’s disastrous, unaffordable purchase of its own stock. On October 29, Mitchell secures a personal loan from J.P. Morgan to buy the shares. The market collapses completely, falling another 12%, the worst day in its history. Livermore, having shorted the market, makes an estimated $100 million.

In the immediate aftermath, the National City-Corn Exchange merger collapses. On November 8, James Riordan, president of County Trust Company, ends his own life after suffering heavy losses. President Hoover insists the “fundamental business of the country […] is on a sound and prosperous basis” (219). To avoid paying taxes on his 1929 income, Mitchell arranges a sham sale of National City stock to his wife, Elizabeth. The crash precipitates the Great Depression. A brief market rally in early 1930 fails, and public anger turns on Wall Street, fueled by exposés. After the Republicans are routed in the 1930 midterm elections, a European banking crisis in 1931 prompts Hoover to arrange a moratorium on war debts. Convinced that Democratic short sellers are sabotaging the economy, Hoover pushes for a Senate investigation into market practices but this lacks support.

In 1932, Franklin D. Roosevelt replaces Hoover in a landslide victory. The Senate investigation is revived under an aggressive new counsel, Ferdinand Pecora. In February 1933, Pecora interrogates Mitchell, exposing his massive bonuses, a special loan pool for officers, and the tax-loss sale to his wife. Amid public outrage, Mitchell resigns from National City and is arrested for tax evasion. The hearings investigate J.P. Morgan & Co., revealing that its partners paid no income taxes in 1931 or 1932 and used “preferred lists” to offer discounted stock to influential figures. On the eve of his inauguration, with the banking system collapsing, Roosevelt rejects Hoover’s pleas for joint action. As his first major act, Roosevelt declares a national “bank holiday,” closing every bank. Spurred by the Pecora hearings, Congress passes the Glass-Steagall Act of 1933. This separates commercial and investment banking and creates the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) to ensure depositors’ money against bank losses. In June 1933, Mitchell is acquitted of tax evasion, a verdict that angers the public.

In the years that follow, Richard Whitney, once the “White Knight” of 1929, is imprisoned for embezzlement. Livermore loses his fortune and ends his own life in 1940. Durant declares bankruptcy in 1936. Mitchell is found liable for back taxes in a civil suit but rebuilds his fortune after a 1931 Fed report partially vindicates his 1929 market intervention. Lamont remains a powerful figure. J.P. Morgan spins off its investment banking arm. Carter Glass’s legacy is cemented by the banking act bearing his name, though its key provisions were shaped by others. President Herbert Hoover later rehabilitates his image through post-World War II humanitarian work.