Customer Reviews

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

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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.

"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.

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.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I became very interested in Rottenberg's engrossing account of the American economy in the decades before and just after the Civil War. I didn't pick up the book for that reason, but as I read along, I became more and more fascinated by how financial transactions were made and the meteoric rise of America as a global financial center. The main focus of the book, the reconstructed life of a private person who was a major influence on many key public figures, including J.P. Morgan (whom Drexel nurtured), his niece, the recently canonized Mother Katherine Drexel, and the Bouvier family of Jackie Kennedy fame, among many others, is well told, surprising, and great reading.

My son was given this book as a Drexel student. Picked it up and started glancing through it and the next thing I knew, I was fascinated. An illuminating trip back in time, but also an eye opening glimpse into how vital it was to find investment money for American to grow.

I could not put it down. A fascinating informative tale or an amazing man.

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.

I read this book several years ago and just recently started reading it again (in light of recent Wall Street scandals and bailouts). We could use Anthony Drexel today.

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.

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.