The Great Contraction is economist Milton Friedman's term for the recessionary period from 1929 until 1933, i.e., the early years of the Great Depression.[1] The phrase was the title of a chapter in the landmark 1963 book A Monetary History of the United States by Friedman and his fellow monetarist Anna Schwartz. The chapter was later published as a stand-alone book titled The Great Contraction, 1929–1933 in 1965.[1] Both books are still in print from Princeton University Press and some editions include as an appendix a speech honoring Nobel-memorial economics prize laureate Friedman in which Fed Governor Ben Bernanke made this statement: