Customer Reviews

The Great Game: The Emergence of Wall Street as a World Power: 1653-2000

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Mr. Gorden has accomplished what only great communicators can; he delivers a tremendous amount of easily understood information about his subject, and does not require 1000 pages to do so. In this instance the subject is not an easy one to grasp if it is new to you, or even if it's not so new. If you have ever wanted to have an understanding of much of what you hear about Wall Street, including historical fact, definitions of market language, where the word broker originated, or where and why the wall that was actually erected was placed that gave Wall Street it's name, this is the book. Mr. Gorden explains why geography destined New York City to outgrow any other American Port, and the reasons may surprise you. What was the first "Corner" that was accomplished in the market, what is a "Corner", it's all here. As are some of the famous and infamous men and some fascinating women that helped create the colorful history of, and that brought us the amazing place Wall Street is today. And Mr. Gordon's explanation as to the definition of what constitutes a World Power might surprise you, as well as who those powers are. Very well written, full of useful information, all in all, a great read.

The Great Game is a gem of a book that will appeal to a wide spectrum of people regardless of their personal interest in matters financial. Full of colorful characters and incredible schemes, the central thesis of this terrifically readable treatise is the notion that, in a very real sense, Wall Street sits at the very center of world power, almost as a sovereign entity. The scope of its influence is breathtaking, and Gordon paints a meticulously researched and exciting picture of how it came to be that way. There are some surprises, too. The author easily dispenses with the traditional view that the crash of 1929 was the proximate cause of the Great Depression, and demonstrates how advances in communication technology can often be traced back to the need for investors to have better access to information. An eminently readable must.

Even though I have another book on the history of Wall Street in my reading stack, I picked up a copy of the book just because John Steele Gordon wrote it. Many of you will recognize his voice on NPR and in American Heritage. In fact, Mr. Gordon's article is the first section I read when I receive the newest copy of American Heritage. Mr. Gordon always spins a surprising story each month and this book is no different.

Mr. Gordon covers 350 years of history in just 300 pages, however, don't let the title fool you, it really only covers Wall Street until about 1995, not 2000 (a minor quibble). The book contains many interesting stories along the way such as how Chase Manhattan started off as a water company and why Merrill Lynch was named after two brokers, not one (I didn't realize that).

As always no book on the history of Wall Street would be complete without the Erie Railroad, the "Scarlet Women of Wall Street." Mr. Gordon relives the Erie tale with relish! I could almost see Daniel Drew laughing as he printed additional shares of Erie stock as fast as Commodore Vanderbilt could buy them. The rest of the players of Wall Street take their turn in the book, including J.P. Morgan, Fisk and Gould, Joe Kennedy, Alexander Hamilton, and a few women such as Hetty Green also appear.

Gordon takes time to explain many concepts about how the stock market came to be today including stories on the first corner in Wall Street history to the most recent, the Hunt's brothers attempt to corner the silver market in 1980. Mr. Gordon also explains that each time a player uses the market to their advantage, the invisible hand of Adam Smith pushes the market to correct the "wrongs."

Though it is not one of Mr. Gordon's main points in the book, he does point out throughout the book that the "Robber Barons" of old had many friends/allies in government that turned a blind eye to their schemes.

This book is filled with the history of people of Wall Street, not numbers! Pick it up, you'll find that Mr. Gordon's cornered the market on the history of Wall Street!

I really enjoyed reading this book. It traces the emergence of Wall Street as a world power from 1653 until 2000. In Chapter One, Gordon takes us back in time to the colony of Nieuw Amsterdam. Because its governor, Peter Stuyvesant, feared a land attack from New England, he convinced local merchants to finance the construction of a wall on the town's northern edge. After its construction (of sixteen-foot logs sunk four feet into the ground and sharpened at the top), the city council initially refused to repay the merchants. Only later when Stuyvesant agreed to turn over revenues from the tax on liquor in compensation did the council reluctantly agree. Thus did the town gain a new wall...and a new street as well.

This situation is representative of Gordon's approach to more than 300 years of history. He anchors his reader in a series of historical situations which can often seem dry as dust. Presented by Gordon, they almost come to life. Consider this brief excerpt:

[My book] runs from an economy powered by peasants at their plows to one powered by office workers at their computers; from Galileo's handmade two-inch telescope that could not clearly make out the rings of Saturn, to the Keck Observatory's paired-ten- meter instruments that can see twelve billion light years into space; from a world where news moved at the speed of a horse to one where it moves at the speed of light;. Thus this book is history on the grand scale. And history on such a scale of necessity, largely the history of great men, great themes, and great powers.

As Gordon also notes in the Prologue, like ancient Rome, "Wall Street started small and inconsequential, utterly unnoticed by the mighty of the earth....And like the story of Rome, Wall Street's story is a story worth telling. For like the Romans, the players of the great game were (and are) great, petty, loathsome, smart, brainless, selfish, generous, and always, always human."

There are 15 lively chapters and then an Epilogue in which Gordon describes playing "the great game" as "pursuing our infinite self-interests within the rules of the game." By doing so, "we will continue to move the invisible hand that has made so much of the world so rich." Frankly, I was at first reluctant to read this book. However, I immediately became fascinated by what Gordon shares in the Prologue and then totally caught up in the narrative which follows. Having read it, I understood what Edwin Lefevre (whom Gordon quotes) meant when he once said of that financial center: "The game does not change and neither does human nature."

Very few books manage to write a 300 year history of anything and stay lively and thought provoking from start to finish. Mr. Gordon's "The Great Game" does so in convincing fashion.

The book maintains a quick pace, touching on all of the major events, firms and people that have led to Wall Street's emergence as financier for the world. Yet despite its quick pace the treatment of each of these characters and defining moments is surprisingly deep. I was surprised by the accolades that Mr. Gordon gave to Alexander Hamilton, and how much he had to do with helping establish the US, and correspondingly Wall Street, as a financial powerhouse. (So impressed I read one of his biographies by McDonald.) The theme of the book is the increasing potency of this small street, how it goes from being the financial focus of New York City to New York State, to the Northeast, to the US and finally to the entire world. Wall Street no long represents a few hundred feet of not even water front property, it has come to represent the very essence of finance, not just in the US, but throughout the world. Mr. Gordon has done an excellent job of walking the reader through this fascinating story.

I highly recommend this book.

I found this book to be very informative, especially about the early days of Wall St. There are many neat little facts embedded in this US History lesson. If you enjoy history and the excitement of the stock market, this is the book for you.

I definitely felt it needed a stronger finish, especially with what is happening around us today. The excitement of the earlier chapters really dwindled for me toward the end. Well, maybe that's in the sequel.

John Steele Gordon is an engaging writer. Anyone familiar with his magazine articles in American Heritage knows he is adept at holding readers' attention over several thousand words.

This book reads like a collection of magazine articles. The chapters focus on different personalities or events that shaped (or epitomized) Wall Street over the last two centuries. While there are some attempts to link subjects to their past (notably in the development of rules and regulations), the book reads more like a collection from various time periods rather than a synthesized whole.

What the reader gets are interesting snapshots. And Gordon does make them interesting. Always an engaging writer, he mixes the right amount of fact and commentary to keep a credible story moving along at a nice pace. The author does justice to many fascinating personalities (Hamilton, Fisk, Gould, Vanderbilt, Morgan, Greene, Kennedy, Milkin and Boesky), and events (panics, depression, corners, theft, corruption, manipulation) that have shaped the American financial system since the dawn of our Republic. The chapters are just long enough to gain an appreciation for the subject at hand, but not too long as to bore.

This book is not a study or treatise on financial products or their development. These are mentioned in passing so as to give familiarity to the reader. But, do not expect to learn about how stocks, derivatives or mutual funds (etc., etc.) work in detail here.

While this is not an in depth study of the Street, it is an excellent and engaging survey that will interest the general reader.

If money interests you, then you should read this book. As a Wall Street professional I was enthralled by this easy read about the history of Wall Street. Mr. Gordon does an excellent job of taking us from Wall Street's unambitious start as a northern line of defense for a wilderness trading post to the its role as the most powerful stretch of pavement on Earth.

Some of the unique things you will learn include

1. Who invented modern capitalism (hint: Tulips, 1700th century)? 2. The establishment of our federal tax system 3. What structure made NY city the US's largest city 4. Wall Street's first and greatest speculators 5. The creation of the Federal Reserve System

Gordon does a great job of introducing us to the most powerful people the world may have ever known. The most notable include JP Morgan, arguably the world's greatest banker; Hetty Green, the richest (and most paranoid) woman in the world; Charles Merrill, the man who brought Wall Street to Main Street; and Michael Milliken, the world's most famous Wall Street villain to wear a toupee.

The story of Wall Street is truly extraordinary. Its history is littered with courage, greed, jealousy, genius and lots of stupidity! John Steele Gordon does an admirable job of hitting all the salient points while making the journey enjoyable and memorable. Buy this book and read it!

I purchased this book after watching the CNBC adaptation, and was prepared for a less than sterling treatment (given CNBC's past book adaptations). I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Gordon has written an enjoyable and thorough treatment of the street. Indeed, in retrospect, the CNBC adaptation does not do justice to the work. I highly recommend this work.

As a registered rep., I found Mr. Gordon's book a great read. I highly recommend this book to anyone who's living is linked to the market. This is a must read for investment professionals.