i read ron chernow's book on j. p. morgan before reading this one and initially did not think i would like this one as much, but ended up liking it more. i recommend reading both of them to get a complete picture of morgan, who was, with john d. rockefeller and theodore roosevelt, perhaps the most influential man in america between 1875 and 1925.
chernow's book is really about the house of morgan, and j. p. morgan dies halfway through it, but jean strouse devotes all of her attention to j. p. morgan himself, both to his business and pleasure. he was a man of large ego and appetites, but enough of a fiduciary to be prudent about what he did in all spheres.
both biographers, chernow and strouse, seemed to grow fond of their subject, which is not unusual, except that morgan is a difficult man to warm to. at times they seemed to rationalize or explain away some pretty nasty behavior, e.g., his bigotry and prejudice, which, again, as a fiduciary, he did not let get in the way of making money. if i were jewish, i would not be nearly so tolerant of morgan's virulent anti-semitism as chernow and strouse charitably were. they seemed to accept it as a by- product of his time and class, and i think every biographer ends up liking his subject.
morgan could be an arrogant, haughty jerk and a prick to people, including his family, and was indifferent to his second wife -- his first, the love of his life, having died right after they were married -- and son -- an ineffectual but well-meaning typical "scion" -- but morgan grew up when the upper classes felt entitled to think and act that way, assuming the rightness of their noblesse station in this world. and, he was in a hardball business and playing for keeps with the biggest money of anyone, at any time.
one thing both chernow and strouse point out is how morgan -- seemingly the jupiter above all men -- and his financial house -- seemingly above all nations and boundaries and oriented toward britain rather than toward america -- periodically had to be reined in by the federal government when they got too bold or indifferent to the laws of nations or what was in the usa's best interests.
the law of money was all morgan and his men understood and they thought it was paramount. their machinations, while mostly for the public good and economic development of this country, caused enough distrust of wall street bankers and financiers that more government regulation was called for and ultimately, the federal reserve bank was created, right after he died.
on the positive side, morgan was an inarticulate but, deep inside, a crudely warm man, who genuinely perceived of his role as steward of the american banking and financial system, to enable large amounts of capital to flow westward from europe, to enable the usa to industrialize and expand. he was our banking system and federal reserve system all rolled into one and there is no one like him and has not been since he died. alan greenspan does only a third of what morgan did for the u. s. economy.
jean strouse does a good job of explaining all of this in a way that is not arcane or boring. i am not versed in banking and economics and some of what morgan did in effecting the acquisition and push of big money into the economy and railroads, oil, and other emerging industries is difficult to explain without going into some technical detail.
jean strouse carries this off and i imagine that when she started she had to educate herself about economics to know her subject well enough to not make a fool of herself, as she knew that everyone on wall street would read her book. her discussion of economics a la morgan is both interesting and educational.
the non-business aspect of strouse's book and treatment of morgan the man is just as interesting. morgan was not a philanthopist on the scale of rockefeller, but was a fabulous art and rare book and antiquity collector. a good portion of his collections, except for what his son sold off, became the basis for several new york museum collections that we now enjoy.
and, as strouse points out, morgan was one of the first to have what we now call a rustic lake cottage, on raquette lake in the adirondacks; he spent little time there himself because it frankly was not his style. he also had the nineteenth century version of a phallic cigarette boat, a darth vaderesque, black on black hundred foot yacht, the corsair, which would ominously announce his presence whenever it would glide into a foreign port and tie up; suffice it to say that people far more important than the local press took note of his comings and goings.
i heartily recommend that you read this book. stick with it, as it seems to bog down early on in list-making and daily living detail, but then picks up and finishes strong. you will find it interesting, well-written and worthwhile.
