Subtitle:
How the World My Generation Built is Falling Down, and What We Can Do to Save it
Harry Leslie Smith is old (91), wise, and very angry. He writes powerfully and well and what he has to say about the economic and political state of the US and Britain is emotiona land compelling. Harry's generation of working
class Brits grew up in poverty made desperate by the depression. He sees
strong parallels between what is happening in the US and GB today, and the hard times of his youth. The book is his personal narrative about his life
starting in those early years on up through the present. He admits he is not an
historian nor an economist. It is the fact that he himself lived and experienced the
full span of years and the broad economic cycle that he perceives that gives his writing
power.
Enough other people
have reviewed Harry's Last Stand that I won't. You can get a quick take on the author by
watching two You Tube videos (links below).
Harry's book is about the reality of income inequality from someone who has seen hard times change to good and then start to swing the other way. It's a perspective that even seniors like me don't have. He's paid his dues and learned his lessons. Here in the US our empathy and sense of history is clouded by racial and ethnicity issues plus political beliefs that are not grounded in fact. Harry's story cuts through all of that. You may find some of your own ideas challenged as I did. But I was nodding my head and agreeing with him most of the time.
----------------------
Thanks to the OEN reader who enthusiastically suggested this book in a comment. I regret I can't recall who it was.
(Article changed on August 4, 2014 at 17:47)
