The Great Crash 1929

This is a very readable history of the 1929 stock market crash. It provides the background of the crash, with the market's runup, and the gradual slump before the big crash day. It also carries on with the gyrations and false recoveries that happened shortly thereafter. He identifies s number of factors, including opaque investment trusts, extreme leverage, and self-investment as causes. These were all amplified by the boom that people thought would never end. In the end, it set the template for a crash similar to others that we have seen since. This is one of the better books on financial panics.