Books : The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance
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by: Dan Rottenberg
List Price: $19.95Amazon.com's Price: $13.57 You Save: $6.38 (32%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 338
EAN: 9780812219661
ISBN: 081221966X
Label: University of Pennsylvania Press
Manufacturer: University of Pennsylvania Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 296
Publication Date: 2006-05
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Sales Rank: 106280
Studio: University of Pennsylvania Press
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
It was the height of the Gilded Age and J. Pierpont Morgan controlled the fate of railroads, corporations, and governments. The wealthy and influential were said to tremble before his blinding intellect and intimidating gaze, yet he deferred to one man: Anthony J. Drexel. Drexel - whose name is familiar today only through the university he founded and his recently canonized niece and protegee, Katharine - was the most influential financier of the nineteenth century. The second son of an Austrian emigre, Anthony Drexel (1826-1893) soon established himself as the preeminent financial mind in the Philadelphia currency brokerage his father began in 1838. Shunning publicity, self-promotion, and high-profile public accolades (he declined President Ulysses S. Grant's invitation to become Secretary of the Treasury), Drexel initiated a partnership with J. P. Morgan and his father, Junius, that became the most powerful financial combination of its age. At a time when the United States did not have a central bank, the government as well as large-scale commercial ventures relied on financiers to raise the enormous sums of money necessary to build railroads, construct factories, and fight major wars. With branches and partnerships in London, Paris, Chicago, and New York, all benefiting from their leader's reputation for impeccable integrity, Drexel's firms were able to steer American business through the most extraordinary long-term economic growth of any nation in world history, as well as through four devastating depressions, an enlightening lesson in the cyclical nature of the U.S. economy. 'This solid biography is well documented, thoughtful, and analytical; it displays a thorough knowledge of the sources and is engaging to read...Highly recommended.' - 'Library Journal'. 'Drexel served as Morgan's mentor and molded him into one of the world's most powerful bankers.' - 'Investor's Business Daily'. 'Among the many examples he gives of Drexel's influence, the most surprising is that Drexel's money and mentoring created the legendary J. P. Morgan.' - 'Philadelphia Inquirer'. 'Rottenberg uncovers the full story of this powerful and elusive figure, who cultivated the young Morgan and brokered the nation's extraordinary growth.' - 'Bloomberg Personal Finance'. Drexel and his firm quietly pioneered many of the financial and business strategies that we now take for granted, such as trading national currencies, guaranteeing credit for travelers abroad, rewarding workers based on individual initiative, and offering 'sweat equity' to deserving employees who could not afford to buy stock. By cultivating Morgan's self-confidence and allowing his younger business partner to become the public face for the firm, Drexel was able to avoid attention and, instead, nurture his extended family. Today, Anthony J. Drexel's influence and accomplishments are mostly forgotten or credited to others, but after decades of detective work and careful research, Dan Rottenberg has succeeded in writing the first biography of this exceptionally influential and elusive man. Since Drexel gave no interviews, kept no diaries, held no public offices, and destroyed most of his personal papers, Rottenberg had painstakingly to track down every reference and anecdote he could find and, in the process, discovered 150 previously unknown letters and cables in Drexel's hand. Drexel believed that there is no limit to what one can accomplish if one doesn't mind who gets the credit, but as 'The Man Who Made Wall Street' shows, the balance has finally been paid in full.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating: - Good for book report for marketing Class.
If your teacher wanted you to find reseach about business biography. This is the book for you. Because Wall street is part of trade center today. And finding about who's invented the system, and how life is hard back than. This book tell one of the most important History.
Rating: - Excellent book, a must have!!
I am glad to see that such a good book was written on such an important figure in American Finance. The book kept me wanting to read more and more. From beginning to end. Read it, for it's a must have for any one interested in Finance and it's worth every penny.
Rating: - a good read
As a great-great-great grandson of A.J. Drexel, it was a pleasure to read this book and to learn about my famous ancestors. It is crazy to think that many of his progeny have a difficult time balancing their checkbooks today. Before this book, my knowlege of the Drexels had been limited to family lore.
Rating: - The Man Who Made Wall Street
I thoroughly enjoyed reading Dan Rottenberg's informative book The Man Who Made Wall Street. The book contains all there is to know about the wise and amazingly successful nineteenth century financier Anthony Drexel and the profound role he played as a mentor to the young J. Pierpont Morgan. I especially enjoyed reading about financial systems and processes in nineteenth century America that author Rottenberg describes so well in his new book.
Rating:  - Finally, Some Added Insight On Anthony Drexel
"The Man Who Made Wall Street" is exceptionally written. Not an esoteric financial biography, yet deep enough for an intellectual discussion. Within the folds of 200 pages, you get a sense of the real person behind the financial machine. It is a brilliant biographical account of the leading figure in the financial world of the nineteenth century. There are many things you can take from this book. For me, it revealed that even 'starving' artists can find creative ways to make it and that there is ... Read More
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