Once in Golconda, John Brooks
Once in Golconda, John Brooks
List: $25.00 | Sale: $17.50
Club: $12.50

Once in Golconda
A True Drama of Wall Street 1920-1928

Author: John Brooks

Narrator: Johnny Heller

Unabridged: 11 hr 5 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 12/09/2014


Synopsis

Once in Golconda "In this book, John Brooks-who was one of the most elegant of all business writers-perfectly catches the flavor of one of history's best-known financial dramas: the 1929 crash and its aftershocks. It's packed with parallels and parables for the modern reader." -From the Foreword by Richard Lambert Editor-in-Chief, The Financial Times

Once in Golconda is a dramatic chronicle of the breathtaking rise, devastating fall, and painstaking rebirth of Wall Street in the years between the wars. Focusing on the lives and fortunes of some of the era's most memorable traders, bankers, boosters, and frauds, John Brooks brings to vivid life all the ruthlessness, greed, and reckless euphoria of the '20s bull market, the desperation of the days leading up to the crash of '29, and the bitterness of the years that followed.

Praise for Once in Golconda
"A fast-moving, sophisticated account.embracing the stock-market boom of the twenties, the crash of 1929, the Depression, and the coming of the New Deal. Its leitmotif is the truly tragic personal history of Richard Whitney, the aristocrat Morgan broker and head of the Stock Exchange, who ended up in Sing Sing." -Edmund Wilson, writing in the New Yorker

"As Mr. Brooks tells this tale of dishonor, desperation, and the fall of the mighty, it takes on overtones of Greek tragedy, a king brought down by pride. Whitney's sordid history has been told before. But in Mr. Brooks's hands, the drama becomes freshly shocking." -Wall Street Journal

"It's all there in Once in Golconda-the avarice of an era that favored the rich; and the later anguish of myriads of speculators doomed by a bloated market, easy credit, and their own cupidity and stupidity." -Saturday Review

About The Author

John Brooks (1920–1993) was an award-winning writer best known for his contributions to the New Yorker as a financial journalist. He was also the author of ten nonfiction books on business and finance, a number of which were critically acclaimed works examining Wall Street and the corporate world. His books Once in Golconda, The Go-Go Years, and Business Adventures have endured as classics. Although he is remembered primarily for his writings on financial topics, Brooks published three novels and wrote book reviews for Harper’s Magazine and the New York Times Book Review.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Joel on March 03, 2019

GOLCONDA WAS, ACCORDING TO LEGEND, A CITY IN INDIA IN WHICH EVERYONE WHO ENTERED IT BECAME RICH (LIKE WALL ST IN THE 1920S) In the fall of 1921 the post war depression ended and a new and more durable boom replaced it. The Fed reduced the discount rate from 7% in 21 to 3% by 24. Such a dramatic reduct......more

Goodreads review by Brad on June 07, 2015

If you're a professional investor or just working with your retirement accounts, history can be key to better results. This audiobook or book clarified the 1920s and 30s and helped me understand current regulations based on how they came about. Warren Buffett had this book on his recommended list at......more

Goodreads review by Vineet Khanna on March 20, 2022

Very informative The book has aptly portrayed the prequel ans sequel to the 1929 Crash and is as valid today as it was when it was written.......more

Goodreads review by Nightwitch on July 01, 2017

I was surprised by how intensely readable this was. Definitely popularized rather than scholarly - a really easy, informative read.......more

Goodreads review by Dominik on June 20, 2021

This is not an investment book. It is a depiction of events happening between 1920 and 1940 from the perspective of Wall Street. If you are looking for info on how assets were behaving during the great depression and how to prepare for such events in the future, this book is not for you. However, if......more