Books : Every Man a Speculator: A History of Wall Street in American Life (P.S.)
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by: Steve Fraser
List Price: $18.95Amazon.com's Price: $13.84 You Save: $5.11 (27%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 332
EAN: 9780066620497
ISBN: 006662049X
Label: Harper Perennial
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 768
Publication Date: February 01, 2006
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Release Date: February 07, 2006
Sales Rank: 515304
Studio: Harper Perennial
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Americans have experienced a love-hate relationship with Wall Street for two hundred years. Long an object of suspicion, fear, and even revulsion, the Street eventually came to be seen as an alluring pathway to wealth and freedom. Steve Fraser tells the story of this remarkable transformation in a brilliant, masterfully written narrative filled with colorful tales of confidence men and aristocrats, Napoleonic financiers and reckless adventurers, master builders and roguish destroyers. Penetrating and engrossing, this is an extraordinary work of history that illuminates the values and the character of our nation.
Amazon.com Review:
Wall Street is a window into the soul of America and a battleground for a clash of the nation's values. So writes Steve Fraser, author of the epic book Every Man a Speculator. Fraser sets out to chronicle not so much the history of the 'Street' itself, but its place in American society. Since the founding of United States, he says, Wall Street has been the place where Americans have wrestled with their beliefs about work and play, democracy and capitalism, gambling and investment, equality and freedom, God and mammon, heroes and villains.
This is an ambitious, fascinating tale peopled with infamous confidence men, cold-hearted fraudsters, and ruined speculators, through whose eyes Fraser tells virtually an alternative history of America. The 721-page book starts with William Duer, the country's original market swindler, who manipulated government bonds after the Revolution and died in debtors' prison. Duer's frauds left a deep suspicion of Wall Street among many of America's Founding Fathers and the general public. That suspicion only intensified, Fraser writes, after the panic of 1873, which Mark Twain satirized in his novel The Gilded Age, and the 1929 crash, after which Wall Street came under public supervision for the first time. After World War II, the Street staged a remarkable turnaround, as its 'wise men' became key figures behind the Marshall Plan, NATO, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. Today, despite the dot-com crash and corporate-fraud scandals, Fraser writes that Wall Street has still managed to retain a positive image in America's new 'shareholder society.' But he concludes on a dark tone expressing concerns about 'gathering thunderclouds of world economic disturbance.' He warns that any future market crash could plunge the Street back into disgrace while also reviving the political extremism and fascism of the 1930s. Fraser's elegantly written book manages to be both entertaining and thought-provoking. --Alex Roslin
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - Erudite But Less Than Compelling
Regrettably one of the more unreadable tomes about Wall Street, "Every Man A Speculator" comes up as dry as a professor's rambling essay, as unyielding as a sermon, but with relevance much harder to discern. The book is laden with--one might say overly reliant upon--quotes and convoluted, often pedantic sentence structures. It is admittedly informative at turns, at times socially insightful, but with no joy in its reading. It compels as a reference manual would, but that's not why we read.
Rating: - Why Was This Book Written?
Every once in a while I come across a book that begs the question: why was this book ever written? Steve Fraser's "Every Man A Speculator" is one such book. While it purports to explain the impact of Wall Street in American life, it never reaches this lofty plateau. It is a regurgitation of stories told about Wall Street figures, stories told by other people much better. It assumes you already know what Wall Street consists of and the difference between what Wall Street actually is and what people ... Read More
Rating:  - matchless
A person can spend a lifetime attempting to understand the world of finance. Or he can read this book. It puts into perspective all the sludge oozing out of CNBC, Greenspan, Snow and Company, Kudlow and Cramer and, of course, the Mary Meekers who have begun to surface again after, I suppose, a four year vacation on a private island. For those of boundless faith and small capital, it provides a healthy dose of sanity. If you are victimized by excessive wealth and thus forced to protect it by what is called ... Read More
Rating: - Must read!
One of the best books you could possibly buy. Engrossing, interesting and a real epic work in my opinion. I am a professor of economics and this filled in a lot of missing pieces concerning economics, politics, culture, and history. Starts from the Revolution, and goes right to the present. I dog-eared many pages!
Rating: - A Cultural Look at America's Wall Street Relationship
In July, 1849, the arrest of a local confidence man attracted national media attention.
It seems the con artist, one William Thompson, genteelly dressed would approach his marks discreetly flashing a handful of cash. He would confide to the mark that he intended to invest the bundle in a sure fire business deal. He offered to invest the mark's cash in the same deal if he would demonstrate confidence in the deal by pleading his money and gold watch. Thompson promised to return the next day with ... Read More
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