Wall Street's Son: Morgan

Author: Strauss
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-10-01
Features: Joan Strauss is one of America's most distinguished biographers, an accomplished scholar and genius writer. Her imaginative sensitivity allows her to penetrate the essence of things, and her extraordinary talent enables her to narrate her discoveries vividly and coherently. J.P. Morgan was the center of American finance before World War I and one of the most controversial public figures of the Gilded Age. The completion of this book is an amazing achievement, as the author infuses her own vitality and her obsession with the subject—Morgan finally meets his match. A century ago, J.P. Morgan dominated the entire financial world like a giant. As the mastermind behind the creation of General Electric, U.S. Steel, and a vast railroad empire, he was the core banker of American finance for decades: a few months after his death in 1913, the Federal Reserve replaced the private financial system he had built. He was an early supporter of Thomas Edison and Andrew Carnegie, a close friend (and rival) of Theodore Roosevelt, a confidant of King Edward VII of England and Kaiser Wilhelm of Germany, and a friend to several outstanding women. Morgan shaped his world in many ways and continues to shape ours, yet after his death, he remained shrouded in mystery. Some praised him as a hero of industrialization, while others vilified him as a greedy robber baron. This is a biography that has long been overdue for Morgan: authoritative and meticulously detailed, it portrays him as a man whose domineering will would have made a profound difference to America's finance and culture today had he not existed. The author, Joan Strauss, a prize-winning biographer, writes with eloquence and has spent a decade researching this work based on newly acquired archival materials. She vividly recreates Morgan's life and his era, revealing his full humanity beneath his formidable exterior. Morgan's biography forces us to reassess the role of bankers in the rise of the American economy. At the time, Morgan raised capital from Europe, restructured bankrupt railroads, stabilized markets during economic crises, and founded numerous large companies and financial institutions—today, these actions are taken for granted, hardly remarkable. The fascinating stories and vivid details in this book transport us back in time: Morgan's childhood in Hartford and Boston, his education in Switzerland and Germany, his career beginnings in New York, and his relationships with others—his respected and stern father, his beloved first wife, his difficult second wife, his children, partners, business associates, and many friends. Morgan was also an art collector, preserving a treasure trove of historical wealth for America, including paintings and literary works. A contemporary expert called him "the greatest collector of our time," and he devoted much of his energy and more than half of his fortune to art. Strauss's extraordinary biography not only vividly and innovatively recreates Morgan's multifaceted life but also brings to life the cultural and political struggles and social conflicts of the Gilded Age in America.