A First-Class Catastrophe
The Road to Black Monday, the Worst Day in Wall Street History
By Diana B Henriques
Henry Holt & Company
393 pp; $32
Diana B Henriques is an award-winning financial journalist and a best-selling chronicler of the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme. Her new book focuses on a 30-years-ago crisis — the Black Monday debacle of 1987 when the stock market turned in a one-day loss that, on a percentage basis, was almost twice as large as the steepest drop in 1929. In making her case for the importance of the 1987 crash, Ms Henriques has produced