21st out of 23 books
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The Lords of Creation (Forbidden Bookshelf)
The story of the immense financial and corporate expansion which occurred in the United States between the depression of the 1890's and the crisis of the 1930's, with an analysis of the leaders and the forces that brought boom and bust.
Kindle Edition, 321 pages
Published
June 10th 2014
by Open Road Media
(first published 1935)
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Excellent treatment of the “makers” and “job creators” of yesteryear. Some of them really were job creators, and they were surrounded by, as you might expect, the usual coterie of sycophants and cozeners, who preyed on whomever they could like the “heroes” of Auschwitz (i.e., read Primo Levi). After the crashes, some of them did eventually go to jail, like the guys at SAC.
This is a tremendous book. The topic is the financial origins of the Great Depression. Allen is a journalist and he write excellent narrative history. But he is also quite analytic. Published in 1935 it also gives an account of the Great Depression as it seemed at the time. So much of what we read about that era is shaped by Keynes. This gives a first hand impression. But its greatest strength is that it is even-handed. The subject of this book is a deep financial crisis that had very broad impa
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A good primer on the once and future soul of America. Lobbyists, lawyers and tailors will be back in vogue like flies on meat, like traders on a new hedging strategy. Instead of steel, railroads and oil, its big box stores, on-line retailing, data harvesting and storage, but the thrust will be the same. Back to the future, anyone?
An easy-to-read, yet comprehensive, overview of the vast expansion of corporations and finance in the US between the 1890’s and the 1930’s. There are fascinating vignettes of selected “captains of industry and finance”, many of whom were born into poverty but had the skill and the drive to learn the financial tricks and became billionaires. Financial malpractice was egregious and rampant and lead directly and repeatedly to economic crises. Lessons learned, if any, were soon forgotten or ignored.
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An excellent work of history.
Pick this book out of curiosity ... Way too long than needed !
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Frederick Lewis Allen (1890-1954) was born in Boston, studied at Groton, and graduated from Harvard in 1912. He was assistant and associate editor of Harper's Magazine for eighteen years, then the magazine's sixth editor in chief for twelve years until his death. In addition to The Lords of Creation, Allen was well known for Only Yesterday, Since Yesterday, and The Big Change.
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“Though there was much sheer rascality in the Wall Street of the nineteen-twenties, much sheer greed roaming at large, and a widespread betrayal of the fiduciary principle, it may be that none of these things did as much damage to the country, in the sum total, as the sheer irresponsibility of men who, possessing vast powers, played the game of profit and loss without regard for the general public interest.”
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“The center of gravity of American industrial control was moving, and the direction of its motion was immensely significant. It was moving toward Wall Street. The reins which guided the great industries of the country were gradually being taken into the hands of bankers and financiers who could finance these immense holding-company operations and distribute stock by the millions of shares.”
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