formula stories, 16
Forster, E. M., 181
founding-father story, 15
The Fountainhead (Rand), 50
framing, 66
free markets: forgotten nineteenth-century advocate of, 110; George’s Progress and Poverty on, 111;
inflation and, 263; twentieth-century narratives about, xii, 50–51
Free Men and Free Markets (Theobald), 210
Free Silver movement. See Silverites
Friedman, Irving S., 262, 263
Friedman, Milton, 73, 132–33, 307n3
“From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs,” 102
frugality narratives: American Dream narrative in contradiction to, 155; in Great Depression, 136–
37, 142–43, 252; in Japan after 1990, 150
Galbraith, John Kenneth, 233
Gallup, George, 118–19
Gallup Data Collection, 284
gambling culture, and booming stock market, 29
Garber, Peter, 5
Garrett, Geoffrey, 299
GDP data, limited value of, 74–75
GDP growth in US: not successfully forecast, xiv, 301n5. See also economic growth
The General Theory of Employment, Interest, and Money (Keynes), 27
geographic pattern of spread, of economic narratives, 296, 299
George, Henry, 111, 178–79, 188, 209, 310n1
Germany: hyperinflation after World War I, 247, 266; reparations from World War I and, xvii–xviii
Glass, Carter, 191
Gödel, Escher, Bach (Hofstadter), 47
Goetzmann, William, 67
“going viral”: appearing in newspapers around 2009, x; mathematical model of epidemic and, 293.
See also viral narratives
gold: fears and rumors about, at start of World War I, 94; mystique about, 157; public perception of
value in, 5; seen as safest investment, xii; spiritual significance of, 165; still held by central banks,
156–57
gold bugs, 163–64
Goldman, William, 41
gold standard: adoption in US, 166; defined, 156; eighteenth-century origins of, 166; end of, 156,
172–73; impact on farmers, 157–58, 161, 163; length of Great Depression and, 132; meaning “the
best,” 158. See also bimetallism
Gold Standard Act of 1900, 157, 312n10
gold standard narrative: morality and rectitude represented in, 172; somewhat active today, 156;
symbolism in congressional debate and, 165–66; two separate epidemics of, 158–59, 159f, 166;
Wizard of Oz and, 171–72, 313n29
Google Ngrams, x, xiii; imperfect for narrative research, 280–81
Google’s “OK Google,” 207
Grais, R. F., 294
grand narrative, 92
Grant, James, 242, 251
Grant, Ulysses S., 157

The Grapes of Wrath (Steinbeck), 131
The Great Crash, 1929 (Galbraith), 233
Great Depression of 1930s, 111–12; angry narratives in, 239; bimetallism epidemic during, 23;
blamed on loss of confidence, 130; blamed on “reckless talk” by opinion leaders, 127; confidence
narratives in, 114, 122; consumption demand reduced after, 307n3; crowd psychology and
suggestibility in understanding of, 120; deportation of Mexican Americans during, 190; depression
of 1920–21 and, 243, 251–53; difficulty of cutting wages during, 251–52; Dust Bowl and, 130–31;
fair wage narrative during, 250; family morale during, 138–39; fear during, 109, 127–28, 141; flu
epidemic of 1918 mirroring trajectory of, 108; frequency of appearance of the term, 133, 134f;
frugality and compassion in, 135, 136–37, 140–43, 252; gold standard narrative during, 158–59;
labor-saving machinery and, 174; lists of causes created at the time, 129–30; modern theories
about causes of, 132–33; modesty narrative during, 135, 136–37, 139, 142–45, 147–48, 150;
narratives after 2007–9 crisis and, 95; narratives focused on scarcity during, 129; narratives
illuminating causes of, ix–x; not called “Great Depression” at the time, 133–34; not forecast by
economists, xiv; ordinary people’s talking about, 90–91; photos providing memory of, 131;
prolonged by avoidance of consumption, 139, 142, 144–46; as record-holder of economic
downturns, 112; revulsion against excesses of 1920s during, 235–36; robot tax discussed during,
209; seen as stampede or panic, 128; technocracy movement and, 193–94; technological
unemployment narrative and, 183, 184; today’s downturns seen through narratives of, 134–35,
264; underconsumption narrative during, 188–90; women’s writing about concerns during, 137–
40, 145–46
The Great Illusion (Angell), 95
Great Recession of 1973–75, 112
Great Recession of 1980–82, 112
Great Recession of 2007–9, 112; bank failures as key narratives in, 132; fear about intelligent
machines and, 273; fueled by real estate narratives, 212; predicted by few economists, xiv; rapid
drop in confidence during, 272
Great Society, 50
Greenspan, Alan, 227
Gresham’s Law, and bimetallism, 169, 313n27
hacker ethic, 7
The Hacker Ethic and the Spirit of the Information Age (Himanen), 7
Hackett, Catherine, 140, 253–54
Halley, Edmund, 124
“Happy Birthday to You” (song), 97–100
Harari, Yuval Noah, 208
Harding, Warren, 244–45
“hard times,” 134
Hard Times: An Oral History of the Great Depression (Terkel), 234
Harris, Sidney J., 263
Harvey, William Hope, 161, 162, 312n10
Hazlitt, Henry, 247
“Heads I win, tails you lose,” 110
health interventions, narrative presentation of, 78
Heathcote, Jonathan, 214
Heffetz, Ori, 144
Hepburn, Katharine, 201
Hero of Alexandria, 175
Hicks, John, 24, 26