The Go-Go Years: The Drama and Crashing Finale of Wall Street's Bullish 60s / John Brooks

"The Go-Go Years is not to be read in the usual manner of Wall Street classics. You do not read this book to see our present situation reenacted in the past, with only the names changed. You read it because it is a wonderful description of the way things were in a different time and place."
—From the Foreword by Michael Lewis

The Go-Go Years is the harrowing and humorous story of the growth stocks of the 1960s and how their meteoric rise caused a multitude of small investors to thrive until the devastating market crashes in the 1970s. It was a time when greed drove the market and fast money was being made and lost as the "go-go" stocks surged and plunged. Included are the stories of such high-profile personalities as H. Ross Perot who lost $450 million in one day, Saul Steinberg's attempt to take over Chemical Bank, and the fall of America's "Last Gatsby," Eddie Gilbert.

Praise for The Go-Go Years

"Those for whom the stock market is mostly a spectator sport will relish the book's verve, color, and memorable one-liners."
—New York Review of Books

"Please don't take The Go-Go Years too much for granted: as effortlessly as it seems to fly, it is nonetheless an unusually complex and thoughtful work of social history."
—New York Times

"Brooks's great contribution is his synthesis of all the elements that made the 1960s the most volatile in Wall Street history . and making so much material easily digestible for the uninitiated."
—Publishers Weekly

"Brooks ... is about the only writer around who combines a thorough knowledge of finance with the ability to perceive behind the dance of numbers 'high, pure, moral melodrama on the themes of possession, domination, and belonging.'"
—Time