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Library | Item Barcode | Call Number | Material Type | Item Category 1 | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Searching... | 30000010068239 | HG5129.N5 G44 2001 | Open Access Book | Advance Management | Searching... |
Searching... | 30000010068238 | HG5129.N5 G44 2001 | Open Access Book | Advance Management | Searching... |
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Summary
Summary
Long part of the Wall Street financial structure, the great partnerships of Wall Street ruled American finance from the turn of the 19th century with a combination of financial expertise, political power, and a mythical power that borrowed on true folklore. These money dynasties have disappeared from the financial landscape. While their place has been taken by the large well-capitalized securities firms of the 21st century, it is doubtful whether any 21st century firm could match their influence in helping develop American capitalism.
Author Notes
Charles R. Geisst is a professor of finance at Manhattan College.
Reviews 4
Publisher's Weekly Review
Despite the subtitle, this book doesn't throw wide the back-room doors of major investment banking and brokerage firms like Merrill Lynch and Salomon Brothers. Instead, it provides a general history of Wall Street, organized in chronological chapters, each featuring two famous houses. The first chapter covers 1812 to 1873, focusing on Clark Dodge and Jay Cooke. The last chapter runs from the 1930s to the present, featuring Lazard Freres and Goldman Sachs. Most of the material can be found in the author's previous works, 100 Years of Wall Street and Wall Street: A History. This reorganization might have yielded new insights had it shown how certain firms helped shape their time and place, and vice versa, or perhaps if it had focussed on the passing of the torch from era to era. As it stands, Ron Chernow's The Death of the Banker and Martin Mayer's The Bankers and even Geisst's previous works are more compelling and better written. Still, Geisst has more understanding of finance than most popular financial historians; despite the drawbacks of this Wall Street history, it represents the various firms fairly and aptly. (May 1) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Booklist Review
Geisst is the author of Monopolies in America: Empire Builders and Their Enemies from Jay Gould to Bill Gates (2000) and Wall Street: A History (1997). He now turns his attention to the investment banking houses that helped finance American growth. Although the names of these financial dynasties are still familiar, the partnerships on which they were built have ceased to exist. From the War of 1812 until the end of World War II, however, they were conferred celebrity status and were also the "subjects of folklore, envy, and political vilification, and notorious symbols of wealth and power." They sold Union war bonds to fund the Civil War, financed the first transatlantic steamship service, supplied capital for industry, and helped build this country's cultural institutions. Geisst profiles Clark Dodge and Jay Cooke; the Seligmans, Lehman Brothers, and Kuhn Loeb; Brown Brothers Harriman and August Belmont; Kidder Peabody and Dillon Read; J. P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley; Merrill Lynch and E. F. Hutton; Salomon Brothers and Drexel Burnham; and Goldman Sachs and Lazard Freres. --David Rouse
Choice Review
Understanding the origin, organization, function, and strategies of investment bankers exposes much about the financial, legal, and business history of the 19th- and 20th-century US. Geisst (Manhattan College) has written an interesting history of the founding and often tumultuous times of many of the most celebrated money houses of Wall Street. That so many of the most recognizable names in American financial history were established and persisted as partnerships even as much of the world's and the nation's economic and political structure changed so dramatically around them is an intriguing and compelling story. As partnerships, these investment bankers helped to define and shape the structure of many other firms and industries and as such the historical significance of these financial houses extends far beyond the political boundaries of New York. Given its prominence as a port and commercial center, it is hardly surprising that New York City ultimately emerges as a financial hub, but what Geisst offers is an awareness and insightful analysis of the changing commercial conditions and incentives for a range of prominent investment bankers such as Morgan, Cooke, Brown, Drexel, Goldman, Hutton, and Salomon. Recommended for public, academic, and professional library collections. T. E. Sullivan Towson University
Library Journal Review
Geisst (Wall Street: A History; Monopolies in America: Empire Builders and their Enemies from Jay Gould to Bill Gates) here provides a history of U.S. investment banking over the past 200 years. As the title indicates, investment banking has shifted from partnership activity to corporate ownership. Geisst creditably describes the forces at work in the creation of capital, providing some sociological context through ethnicity and gender issues. Geisst accounts for a number of factors that have caused investment banking to undergo a sea change: increasingly high dollar amounts, the ability of inexperienced traders to bankrupt firms, and the demise of relationship banking. He shows how cutthroat competition changed investment banking from a business based on relationships to one based on the deal itself. This book's appeal will be limited to those interested in financial history. Steven Silkunas, Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, Philadelphia (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Acknowledgments | p. ix |
| Timeline | p. xi |
| Introduction | p. 1 |
| 1 The Yankee Banking Houses: Clark Dodge and Jay Cooke | p. 9 |
| 2 "Our Crowd": The Seligmans, Lehman Brothers, and Kuhn Loeb | p. 40 |
| 3 White Shoes and Racehorses: Brown Brothers Harriman and August Belmont | p. 81 |
| 4 Crashed and Absorbed: Kidder Peabody and Dillon Read | p. 114 |
| 5 Corner of Broad and Wall: J. P. Morgan and Morgan Stanley | p. 157 |
| 6 Corner of Wall and Main: Merrill Lynch and E. F. Hutton | p. 209 |
| 7 Unraveled by Greed: Salomon Brothers and Drexel Burnham | p. 240 |
| 8 The Last Holdouts: Goldman Sachs and Lazard Freres | p. 282 |
| Conclusion | p. 314 |
| Notes | p. 317 |
| Bibliography | p. 325 |
| Index | p. 329 |
