A Secret Gift: How One Man's Kindness--and a Trove of Letters--Revealed the Hidden History of t he Great Depression

By Ted Gup

Book Overview

"A wonderful reminder that economic hardship can bring suffering but can also foster compassion and community." - The Boston Globe In hard economic times like these, readers will find bestselling... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1594202702
• ISBN13: 9781594202704
• Release Date: October 2010
• Publisher: Penguin Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.3" x 6.8"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Sobering

Gup calls himself an investigative reporter, and then proceeds to give credit for the game of Monopoly to Charles Darrow, when it has been firmly established that he simply developed the idea from Elizabeth Magie, who patented the premise for such a concept in The Landlord's Game. He is an excellent wordsmith, but his investigative skills are questionable, and his style is repetitive. The man at the center of his story is his own grandfather, who I found somewhat unlikable, although philanthropic. I found the fact that he chose to include men who squandered their former wealth on sumptuous living in his philanthropy very off-putting. Gup's constant use of the PC term African American" is annoying to the extreme.