|
|
The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance (Paperback)
by Ron Chernow
| Category:
Biography, American capitalism, Modern finance |
| Market price: ¥ 228.00
MSL price:
¥ 208.00
[ Shop incentives ]
|
| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
This remarkable biography is the most ambitious history ever written about an American banking dynasty. |
| If you want us to help you with the right titles you're looking for, or to make reading recommendations based on your needs, please contact our consultants. |
Detail |
Author |
Description |
Excerpt |
Reviews |
|
|
|
Author: Ron Chernow
Publisher: Grove Press
Pub. in: October, 2001
ISBN: 0802138292
Pages: 832
Measurements: 9.2 x 6.6 x 1.8 inches
Origin of product: USA
Order code: BA00632
Other information: ISBN-13: 978-0802138293
|
|
Rate this product:
|
|
- Awards & Credential -
Winner of the National Book Award in North America. |
|
- MSL Picks -
Ron Chernow's The House of Morgan is both an engaging history of the Morgan banks and a brilliant account of the growth of global finance from Victorian times through the late 1980's. It's every bit as enjoyable as Chernow's The Warburgs, but provides a better analysis than the Warburg book of key business and political developments of the 20th century.
No one should be intimidated by this book's length or the complexity of its subject. Its pages are rich with lively portraits of the sometimes quirky men who ran the Morgan banks, the high and mighty of the world with whom they did business, and the world's many critics of such concentrated economic might. Pierpont and Jack Morgan and their successors at the top get the most detailed treatment, but figures as diverse as Brandeis, Mussolini, Lindbergh (the son-in-law of a top Morgan partner), Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt and Margaret Thatcher all play a part in the story, not to mention interesting but lesser-known figures like Ferdinand Pecora, Judge Harold Medina and central bankers from Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan.
As a backdrop to the Morgan saga, this book includes accounts of the main events of 20th-century financial history, such as the Panic of 1907, the creation of the Federal Reserve system, the Crash of 1929 and the depression and bank failures that followed it, the New Dealers' attack on banks led by Pecora that resulted in the Glass-Steagall Act and the separation of commercial banking from investment banking, and the rise of hostile takeovers, Eurodollars, petrodollars, Latin American lending, junk bonds and the securitization of debt, all refreshingly written for laymen rather than experts.
The House of Morgan has perhaps two overriding themes. The first is that as the years have passed, and the Morgan banks have faced increasing competition, the Morgan bankers' need to maintain their global preeminence has led them to take bigger and bigger risks. Some of these risks have resulted in large financial loss, but more often they have resulted in a loss of both public and customers' confidence, which has eroded the very preeminence that the banks seek to maintain. The second theme is that the top Morgan bankers have consistently underestimated the power of government to control what they do, and even make their lives miserable. From Pierpont on down, they have ignored government at their peril. It's almost a certainty that with the next big economic downturn, the Morgan banks will be attacked again, and I hope that Chernow will be on the scene to provide an account of it.
(From quoting an American reviewer)
Target readers:
Biography lovers, readers interested in modern American history, American wealth stories, American banking industry and American capitalism.
|
|
- Better with -
Better with
Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
:
|
|
Customers who bought this product also bought:
|
|
Ron Chernow's first book, The House of Morgan, won the National Book Award and the Ambassador Award for the year's best study of American culture. His second book, The Warburgs, won the Eccles Prize as the Best Business Book of 1993 and was also selected by the American Library Association as one of that year's best nonfiction books. In reviewing his recent collection of essays, The Death of the Banker, The New York Times called the author "as elegant an architect of monumental histories as we've seen in decades and chose the paperback original as one of the year's Notable Books.
|
|
From Publisher
The winner of the National Book Award and now considered a classic, The House of Morgan is the most ambitious history ever written about an American banking dynasty. Acclaimed by The Wall Street Journal as "brilliantly researched and written," the book tells the rich, panoramic story of four generations of Morgans and the powerful, secretive firms they spawned. It is the definitive account of the rise of the modern financial world. A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P. Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece, a compelling account of a remarkable institution and the men who ran it, and an essential book for understanding the money and power behind the major historical events of the last 150 years.
|
| View all 6 comments |
Walter Chang (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-18 00:00>
Chernow excellently portrays our country's most famous banking dynasty from its formation during the early 1800's to the late twentieth century. Throughout the book, readers are entreated with not only the history of the Morgan family but also the transformation of American banking and finance of the past two centuries.
The Morgan history began with Junius Morgan. He was concerned with establishing America's financial credit with European countries, which were very reluctant to lend money to a country that had been recently formed. Their doubts were reinforced when several American states repudiated payment on loans. In his efforts to preserve America's credit worthiness with Great Britain, Junius Morgan created a financial link between the Anglo-Saxon countries that would influence Morgan politics for the next century.
The most famous member of the family was J.P. Morgan, who presided over the bank during the Age of the Robber Barons. During his tenure, the Morgan bank would play the role of lender of last resort for America. Because laissez-faire capitalism was the prevalent practice during this era, only the Morgan bank under the energetic J.P. Morgan possessed the financial and political clout to organize efforts to stop widespread bank failures and catastophic stock declines. Despite being portrayed in the media by Populists as crooked and elitist, the Morgan bank continued to play this important role for the American economy and remained influential nationally even after the creation of the Federal Reserve System.
Although the Morgans were economically powerful, they possessed many human frailties. Many of the Morgan men were reluctant to participate in the family business. Even J.P. Morgan, despite his fame and power, was for most of his life fearful of his father and felt constantly nervous about the imperfections of his nose. Chernow is lauded for depicting the personal lives of the Morgan family.
Despite desperate attempts by the Morgan bank to remain influential and anonymous, the combination of the American public's demand for accountability, its fear of elitist organizations, and the rise of international finance and trade, divided the Morgan bank and forced its successors into such mundane practices as the public listing of its financial records and the offering of common stocks. The abandonment of such traditional practices as the Gentleman Banker's Code culminated in the merger mania of the 1980s, as Morgan Guaranty, Morgan Grenfell, and Morgan Stanley each sometimes assisted one client in acquiring another of its client.
From cooperation to cutthroat competition between bankers, the House of Morgan is filled with triumphs and tragedies of Morgan and American history. It is recommended for every American adult. I am looking forward to reading Titan.
|
A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-18 00:00>
Was it the writing or the main character that made this a fascinating read? answer- both! Chernow brought the character and his environment alive(early 20th Century New York merchant society),and what a character JP Morgan was! I read this book some years ago and what has remained with me ever since is the image of JP Morgan as a somewhat reluctant Titan. Sure he was larger than life and his famous piercing stare DOES come through in the photographs. You can easily imagine people hustling out of his way as he strode down Wall Street. Yet Chernow does a good job of humanizing the man, explaining clearly that he really had no choice (family upbringing, apprenticeship, business inheritance) all worked to make JP Morgan what he was. What also comes across is the fact that the Financial world at the time almost demanded and needed a JP Morgan. The early pioneering days of Wall street are vividly portrayed.JP Morgan's role in leading, cajoling, directing and bullying where necessary,to ensure that industries and markets developed - is explained clearly. You certainly get the sense that the man understood the times and took seriously his responsibility as a person of influence and power. Greed, surprisingly to me, does not seem to be a major factor in explaining JP Morgan. All in all an interesting insight into a bygone era and a fascinating character.
|
Kate Long (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-18 00:00>
The House of Morgan can serve as a proxy for the history of the American financial system before the establishment of the Federal Reserve. Morgan's influence on the world financial system was demonstrated by the raising of loans for the English, French and German governments. Morgan was also well known as the sponsor of many railroad bonds at the turn of the last century. As such the bank was instrumental in building the infrastructure which allowed the industrial revolution to bloom with enormous strenth here in America. It is said that at the turn of the century JP Morgan had underwritten half of the securities traded on the NYSE. Morgan's great strength was a function of the American/British arms of the bank and their ability to transfer capital and wealth between between the two nations. Each nation has had economic dominance in different periods of history. Yet many view JP Morgan as a villian or a greedy banker with dollar signs in his eyes. Ron Chernow's five star treatise on Morgan reveals him to be a deeply religious man who was intent on bringing orderly rationalization to the capital markets and restraining competition which he believed to be counter-productive in capitalist economy. He and his bank were deeply private and this work does a wonderful job of gently pulling back the curtain at 23 Wall Street.
|
A reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-18 00:00>
This book is superbly written.
The House of Morgan tells a fascinating story of the Morgan family's dominance of the American banking industry. After reading this book, you will find out that it was not the famous one, J. Pierpont Morgan, who oversaw the greatest expansion of Morgan power but rather it was his son, Jack Morgan. This doesn't seem to be very known.
Even more interesting than the story of the Morgans and their various firms is the other story that this book tells - the story of the banking business. House of Morgan effectively chronicles the tremendous shift that occurred in the financial industry. When Pierpont opened shop in the 19th Century, banking was a clubby business, where decisions were made by consensus among men. Although certainly not inclusive or politically correct, it almost seems quaint in comparison to modern office life. It was far from the litigious, contentious style that seems to be present in the modern versions of these corporations. Chernow does a great job at depicting it all.
|
View all 6 comments |
|
|
|
|
