＂Most measures of the American economy over the past two centuries or so produce a jagged sine wave--＂irrationally exuberant＂ highs leading to painful lows. Bubbles lead to panics, over and
over again. Payne has written a short book on the 1920s to demonstrate to undergraduates how this pattern emerges, especially how the highs get to be so high--specifically during the 1920s,
which seem to offer instructive examples of the worst practices and circumstances. This ＂How Things Worked＂ volume explains market mechanisms, popular pressures, and the workings or failings of
regulation. While every drop in the economy has its peculiar features, that of 1929 has the markings of a classic＂--
