Big Change
‘The Big Change’ was written in 1952, two years before I was born. This book is timely in view of the current events of 2011. It allows the reader to go back in time to understand what life was like only a short time ago and to see first hand the cause and effect of the changes in our monetary policy. In reviewing the past we can often attain a view of the future. As they say, history has a way of repeating itself. Frederick Lewis Allen does a great job of telling us about the conditions, the attitudes and the people that lived in the USA during the fifty year period spanning 1900 to 1950. The ‘Big Change’ was originally written in 1952, when the events were fresh in the mind of the author. After all, he lived then too. That episode of history had seen two world wars, several recessions, the recall of gold, the establishment of a central banking system (that still survives today), the crash of the stock market in 1929 and the resulting Great Depression of the 1930’s. The ‘New Deal’ came along and finally - World War II. Two atomic bombs flashed to end that war, the jet age began as did the cold war. The world watched in awe at the swift changes taking place all about them. Frederick Lewis Allen provides insight into the ‘day-in’ and ‘day-out’ thinking of the banks, businesses and people of that era. With the current state of affairs in our country the re-issue of this book is timely. Before we get into the story of the early 1900s, it will serve well to understand what the creation of a central bank has done to our country and to the world. We are all grasping for answers and hope. Is our country doomed on its present course? The reader can decide for themselves after reading my Introduction below that precedes the Foreword of Frederick Lewis Allen. All one has to do is use their head to see and understand that history will repeat itself; we are headed for an economic earthquake. Hard times are coming our way again very soon. Can this be avoided?