Although some times the reading becomes a bit "heavy", the author did a great job in making this matter affordable everyone. Remarkable investigating work, and condensed in order to avoid a huge book.
It is a book that can find a great use among scholars, investors, or even just plain people interested in knowing more about those traumatic crisis that recurrently happen any capitalist system.
The book was worth every penny spent in buying it.

it's a fantastic book that covers not only the four biggest US bear market but also the whole history of US stock market. Through this, you can see what people thought and what they did in the great bottoms. It just feel like you're back there!

Imagine being a stock investor during the roaring twenties. The Dow Jones Industrial Index gained around 420%. Then imagine all of that gain being taken away by the Great Depression as the DJIA dropped around 89% between 9/3/29 and 7/8/32. Then imagine gaining 372% to peak on 3/10/1937. It was a very big roller coaster ride.
Then imagine the DJIA gaining 94% between 10/9/02 to 10/9/07. Then feel it dropping 53.7% from 10/9/07 to 3/9/09. The market will need to gain 116% just to get back to the peak. Somewhere among the millions there was probably some unlucky soul that was buying on 10/9/07 and selling on 3/9/09.
If your goal is to buy within six months of a bear market bottom and sell within six months of a stock market top, then you'll need to begin with when to buy. The author looked at 10 to 12 variables that would signal the four best times to buy during the 100 years that begin with the year 1900.
One of the things I like best is the quotes from the Wall Street Journal in the days before and after the bear market bottom. When placed in context of the stock, bond, commodity markets; politics, and the Federal Reserve stance, the quotes are surprising.
When FDR took office, most of the price damage to the DJIA had already been done. But the politicians didn't sit on their hands. There were nine new bills targeting finance in the years 1933 to 1935. Now Obama wants to seriously change our current financial regulation. Just think, less than two years ago the concern was that the Euro would replace the US dollar at the reserve currency of the world and London "the city" will replace New York as a major financial center. Time will tell if the current rally was green shoots or yellow weeds.
If you're looking for less of a textbook, try the audio book, Reminiscences of a Stock Operator.

It is more of a stock market history book and can be
boring to read at times. The conclusions
basically summarized the 290+ page of material.

Its now 2009, and we are already in the midst of one of the greatest bear markets in history. It only makes sense to read this book before deciding whether or not to jump back into equities. Recently the author has been quoted as not being bullish (Jan 2009) and in the book he provides compelling arguments as to why it pays to wait in extreme bear markets before investing.

A great history book and an hopefully an even more useful guide to investors today. If you are even thinking about buying this book, you should.

This book, written before the melt down, is a must read in these times. The events leading up to the falls are reviewed and more interesting now, when things bottom. It is not a sensationalistic or get rich quick book. Rather, it offers clear insight. By reviewing the great bear markets of the last century, common patterns are discovered, some contradict conventional wisdom and TV talking heads. The case is made for a handful of predictors when we have really bottomed, all easily monitered. The books is relatively easy to read but assumes some basic market understandaing, but even a novice would get the point. At times, it was a little tedious and i admit to skipping along towards the end of the book. It is rare to find such a insightful work.

This book is rare in that it examines the four greatest bear market bottoms that would have made you the most money if you would have entered them at the right time, instead of the endless books out that show how to buy the hottest stocks in a perpetual bull market. What I like about this book is that the author stays away from his own opinions and simply shows the facts by examining the Wall Street Journal articles during each of these periods, August 1921, July 1932, June 1949, and August 1982. These were the actual bottoms when the market finally began to reverse. You will surprising see that unlike common Wall Street myths the bottom is not when things are the worse and everyone has a negative outlook, actually the WSJ article show that there was hope of a turn around, volume had dried up, P/E ratios were obviously absurdly low, and car sales were beginning to pick up. You will do very well to buy and read this book and add its information to your arsenal of trading and investing. While most of us sit out bear markets to keep our gains it is very important to know when to buy back in for the next up leg, this book can help you do just that.

This is an excellent book on the history of stock market in U.S.
I remember somebody said something like this:
If you want to know the future you need know the history very well.
And somebody else says: History does not repeat itself, it rhymes.
This books also provides a good list of other investing books. I bought some other good books referenced by this book.

Another classic of this type is "Manias Panics and Crashes".

This one is specific to the four big Bear markets of the last century. The author goes through each one as an example. He identifies each stage and has clippings from the markets on peoples sentiment. Shows pricings and looks for what was the best indicator at the bottom. There is no hype, predictions, or false systems in this book. It's more presenting information and presenting patterns that occured.

All the bears follow similar patterns where there is froth, leverage, money sloshing around and everything is priced up a bit. Then some triggering event happens and people either re-evaluate or are forced to change their minds on valuations. Prices drop until they hit a bottom. Things uptrend for a while even though the news is still bad.... The author goes over each bear and how it's the same and how it's different.

Until reading this book, I did not understand or even think about using commodity prices as a leading indicator. Did not know that the stock market turned up before the economy did. Did not know that the great depression involved multiple stages, an international banking crisis, and a late move to gold.

After reading this book, now when I see someone on the TV saying that "They've never seen anything like this before" about LTCM, Bear Strerns, or the price of oil or gold... I have a better perspective. When someone tells me that "the market has definately found bottom" or "Can't go down from here"... I kind of chuckle now.

I do know that when people say "This is a great time to buy stocks..." they often don't know what they're talking about, or they're making it up.

If the credit crisis worsens this year, this summer or the next may be the best buying opportunity in the US stock market in the last 30 years. Hopefully what I've read will be some help. Every downturn is different, and Banks/Fed/Investors act differently each time based on past exp and history... It may be that we've already hit bottom... It may be that nothing in this book will call the next bottom... Only time will tell.

Many won't read this book because it doesn't say "Get RICH QUICK" on the front... LOL

For every one even remotely concerned or interested in stock market, this book is a must read. It is a very well researched and very well written book with indepth coverage of important events happening around the bottoms as well as the tops in the market. It is difficult to write such an interesting book on rather complex subject like this.