A big (and topical) subject, by an economics giant. So, I was surprised to find it short, friendly, enjoyable and decidedly non-technical. It gives a good history of the crash, being both well-referenced, and at least openly subjective. There are parallels between this and recent events, and it's interesting to see what's similar and what's decidedly different. Being about the Crash, rather than the Depression, the focus is on little more than the main speculative bubble. However, towards the end there is an interesting bit on how bad handling turned the Crash into the Depression. From what it says there, it does look like we won't be making the same mistakes this time (I'm sure we'll make new and different ones instead).
Posted 2008-11-18.