Shortfall

Unearthing from her mother's attic a treasure trove of illuminating personal papers—and dark family secrets—Alice Echols's Shortfall meticulously follows the rise and fall of her grandfather Walter Davis, the unscrupulous owner of a leading building and loan association in Colorado Springs in the 1920s and 1930s. With impeccable research and a knack for grounding airy financial dealings in down-to-earth examples, this fine microhistory of American capitalism reminds us that, while perhaps falling out of fashion in recent years in favor of examining the sprawling global tale, focusing on seemingly small, local histories can offer a helpful new lens to view some of our biggest historical questions. While many family biographers tend to portray their protagonists too positively, Echols pulls no punches as she delves into the unflattering story of how her philandering grandfather slipped out of Colorado Springs in the depths of the Great Depression, leaving behind over three thousand angry depositors and a financial shortfall of over $1 million in hard-earned savings that the townspeople were never getting back

Archaeology · Capitalism · Economic history · Economics · Genealogy · Great Depression · Loan · Political science · Politics · Receivership · Squire · Treasure · American Environmental and Regional History · Finance · Historical Economic and Social Studies · History · Housing, Finance, and Neoliberalism · Law