The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance [Hardcover]

Dan Rottenberg (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 2001

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Though Drexel (1826-1893) was a major player in American finance as the country moved into the industrial age and certainly deserves a serious biography, his achievements are often overlooked in favor of more famous figures such as Jay Gould and J.P. Morgan. In fact, the book's title is ironic, given that Drexel's base was Philadelphia's Third Street financial district. Yet most of this book concerns his indirect effect on New York financial circles and his very direct effect on the fortunes of his good friend J.P. Morgan. Some of Drexel's obscurity is attributable to his private nature; there are few surviving papers and no interviews. On this score, Rottenberg (Finding Our Fathers) has done a superlative job, tracking down hundreds of bits of information, collating indirect references and interviewing many surviving relatives. Unfortunately, the other reason that Drexel gets little fanfare is that he was less interesting, energetic and imaginative than his celebrated contemporaries. Perhaps partly due to a lackluster portrayal, Drexel never comes alive in these pages, either as a person or as an important force. His introduction of financial practices that are now entrenched norms is indeed important, but to general readers his influence will seem very subtle and indirect. In the high drama of American finance, Drexel secured a seat with an unobstructed view. Readers with a particular interest in 19th-century financial affairs will find this work an invaluable resource, providing a rigorously researched and solidly presented illumination of hitherto neglected details. 26 b&w illus.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Nineteenth-century financial tycoon and J.P. Morgan partner Anthony Drexel has long deserved a biography, and he is well served by historian and Family Business magazine editor Rottenberg (The Inheritor's Handbook). During Drexel's life, he amassed one of the larger fortunes of the 19th century without becoming a typically rapacious robber baron; he also helped organize Union finances during the Civil War, helped develop the first commercially successful and politically independent newspaper in the Unites States, and was J.P. Morgan's senior partner (and the only man the notoriously arrogant Morgan ever deferred to). In addition, the financier was influential in the life of his niece Katherine Drexel, who was recently canonized by the Catholic Church. This solid, scholarly biography is well documented, thoughtful, and analytical but not uncritical; it displays a thorough knowledge of the sources and is engaging to read. Rottenberg is an especially smooth literary stylist; despite the finance and economic history, the narrative flows in such an easy manner that the concepts would be easily understandable to audiences from high school on up. Strongly recommended for finance collections in academic and Pennsylvania-area libraries. Patrick J. Brunet, Western Wisconsin Technical Coll., La Crosse
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 296 pages
• Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press (August 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0812236262
• ISBN-13: 978-0812236262
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,549,979 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Man Who Made J.P. Morgan, January 3, 2002

By 

Clayton H. Farnham (Atlanta, Ga.) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance (Hardcover)

A gripping good story about one of the titans of American history, who did his best to hide out. Author Rottenberg writes a grand supplement to things that one thinks that one knows, putting a whole new perspective on the history of corporate finance. This subject is anything but dull in the hands of an author who so skillfully depicts its high drama of riches and ruin. J.P. Morgan was a made man, not a self-made man, for his more famous role in a time closer to our own, and Drexel is the mentor who made him. Ron Chernow, the great Morgan and Rockefeller author, flew blind on this part of the story, for Rottenberg's material had to be dredged up over a 20-year period from remote sources, given Drexel's own destruction of records and correspondence. Required reading for anyone with an interest in the source of the general wealth that makes this country's political and economic freedoms possible.

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, Some Added Insight On Anthony Drexel, January 12, 2002

By 

Roy R. Pachecano (New York City) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance (Hardcover)

"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 often more to the person who chooses to remain behind the scenes.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Man Who Made Wall Street, March 28, 2002

By 

Steve Newman (Charlotte, NC) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man Who Made Wall Street: Anthony J. Drexel and the Rise of Modern Finance (Hardcover)

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.