Frank Steindl asks why, despite much monetary work in the intervening years, it was not until Friedman and Schwartz put forward their monetary interpretation of the depth of the Great Depression that the monetary approach was rescued from disrepute and established as one of the most widely held explanations for the Depression. To answer this question, the author explores the work of economists writing before Friedman and Schwartz. Among those investigated are Angell, Currie, Fisher, Hawtrey, Simons, Snyder, and Viner - economists of the first rank. Other approaches examined include those of Harry G. Brown, C. O. Hardy, Lionel Edie, Willford King, Arthur Marget, Lloyd Mints, Lionel Robbins, James Harvey Rogers, and H. Parker Willis.