Amity Shales "Forgotten Man" book an in-depth look at the great Depression through artwork of Paul Rivoche

Arnold Buckly
Amity Shales has produced an incredible graphics book examining America in the heights of the great depression The story is narrated by Wendell Willkie who ran against Franklin Roosevelt in 1940 on the eve of the second World War and pretty much the book covers his thoughts and feelings of the first two Roosevelt administrations as a big business small government advocate bigshot in the early utility industry.  Wendell" and his kind didn't want government offering cheap electricity to poverty stricken people and wanted to charge a premium for electricity for mass profit. The book is one of the best in depth easy to explain look back at the depression and includes several flamboyant individuals of influence in the Roosevelt administration including professor Rexford Tugwell, who was an early progressive and fought for a more collection approach in dealing with the major economic trouble this country has ever faced in a history of many downturns capitalism purposely achieves. professor Tugwell is highlighted much in this book and earning the cast of characters is important as many of them look alike as did most men in the forties.

  The importance of this progressive legislation over those like Wendell fighting for big corporation is the  asis of much of this book as this book illuminates key government legislation that was intended to give the forgotten man more power and ease in their life in this struggling era. Weddell Willkie went down to a major defeat and pretty much the book ends right there as it does what it was intended and deals with the thirties and the enduring pain of that decade and the key intervention initiatives bought forth by the progressive Franklin D Roosevelt.

Illustrator Paul Riuoche does a masterpiece throughout this book in detailing the dark era and lives many people had to endure during the depression. Amity Shales has a book in non-graphic form of this same subject but I would highly recommend the graphics version as it can tell a quicker story and art work is always way more interesting than the written form and it contains the artwork of the best comic strip out there in one Paul Rivoche Of course this work couldn't of been done without the incredible book knowledge and writing of Amity Shales and this author is worth many more posts of her work in the future. Amity Shales is one of the premium historical writers out there and is an author of high recommendation  for more learning of this time period that most people overlook and feel is of little importance. However, the depression era and the legislation done by government saved the country from the anarchy described in Soviet Russia and brutal Germany of this period and much is overlooked at how government can  work to bring about maor change working for the common man as much as it worked for the Andrew Mellons.