When Money Was In Fashion: Henry Goldman, Goldman Sachs, and the Founding of Wall Street [Hardcover]

June Breton Fisher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 27, 2010

This epic biography tells the story of the rise of Wall Street and the growth of Goldman Sachs from a small commercial paper company to the international banking business we know today. At its heart is the story of Henry Goldman, a man who spoke out passionately for his beliefs, understood the importance of the bottom line, and was known to chuckle, draw on his cigar, and remind his young protégés, "Just keep in mind . . . Money is always in fashion."

Though you will rarely find a mention of him in the official history of Goldman Sachs, it was Henry who established many of the practices of modern investment banking. He devised the plan that made Sears, Roebuck Co. the first publicly owned retail operation in the world, helped convince Woodrow Wilson to pass the Federal Reserve Act of 1913, and became a power player in the world of Wall Street finance at a time when Jews were considered outsiders.

The book traces Henry Goldman's hard-fought and often frustrating career with Goldman Sachs, a company founded by his father Marcus and fraught with professional rivalries. The tensions between the Goldman and Sachs families extended outside of the boardroom and into the larger world as the United States went to war. Henry’s steadfast support for Germany during World War I would tarnish his reputation and drive him from the firm. But his involvement with finance would continue throughout his life, as would close friendships with luminaries like Albert Einstein, whom he would later join in outspoken denunciation of Hitler’s atrocities against European Jews.

Here, June Breton Fisher, Henry Goldman’s granddaughter, tells his whole story for the first time—a story that has shaped contemporary finance and continues to resonate with us today.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"When Money was in Fashion provides a much needed and fascinating look into the life of one of Wall Street's original elder statesmen. Fisher's story is both revealing and personal and provides behind-the-scenes insight into the formative period of Wall Street's growth." --Charles Geisst, Author of The Last Partnerships and Wall Street: A History

"Most Americans know more more about string theory than they do about high finance -- and even less about the character, family background and inner life of Wall Street's principle protagonists. This beautifully written and quietly revealing biography provides a timely, fascinating and discretely unflinching account of the life of Henry Goldman -- the sixth child and second son of Bertha and Marcus Goldman, the founder of Goldman Sachs, and a key if complex force in the evolution of the firm during the first two formative decades of the 20th century. Written by Goldman's granddaughter, June Fisher, it combines a rare inside family portrait of America's most powerful banking dynasty with an unusual degree of elegance, irony and restraint. Anyone interested in the history and lineage of Goldman Sachs will be riveted by Ms. Fisher's story." --Ric Burns, documentary filmmaker

"When Money Was in Fashion is a fascinating and enlightening window into a major part of Wall Street history: the now legendary investment banking firm of Goldman Sachs and Henry Goldman, one of the firm's prime shapers." -- John Steele Gordon, Author of An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power

 

“[An] immigrants-made-good saga….[A] memoir of an admired grandfather by a current-day octogenarian who was 10 years old when he died….Patriarch Goldman knew how to enjoy his money after earning it, knew how to enjoy togetherness with family members, knew how to enrich the citizenry he sometimes had been accused of exploiting.”--USA Today

 

"A graceful account of Goldman and his era....[A] charming family scrapbook."--Bloomberg Businessweek

About the Author

June Breton Fisher is Henry Goldman’s granddaughter.  She was born in New York City in 1927, graduated from the Brearley School and attended Bryn Mawr College. She lives in Santa Barbara, CA.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1 edition (April 27, 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0230617506
• ISBN-13: 978-0230617506
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #696,427 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Part Biography, Part Memoir..., April 2, 2010

By 

Eric Hobart (La Center, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: When Money Was In Fashion: Henry Goldman, Goldman Sachs, and the Founding of Wall Street (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

When I selected this book, I thought that it would be an analytical book focusing on Henry Goldman, Goldman Sachs, and the founding of Wall Street (as the title suggests). However, I was sorely disappointed after reading it.

The book is based on family history more than anything - it is an interesting read, but it feels as though the author (who is related to the subject) is trying to either create or repair a legacy for Henry Goldman rather than analyzing how his life influenced Wall Street.

Having said that, I must be fair - the author does present us with plenty of factual examples of how Goldman's magical touch turned his efforts into Gold (quite literally, in some cases), and she exposes some of his flaws (i.e. supporting Germany during WWI), but mostly it is about showing the kind of person Goldman was.

The book is arranged topically - unlike many history books, this one does not progress chronologically, which made it a little harder for me to read & comprehend. In and of itself, this does not make it a bad book, but it detracted from my reading experience.

There is one chapter that is largely personal memoir - there are tales of family gatherings, the "good times", and how Goldman was indeed the family patriarch. However, that chapter does not lend itself at all to the title, and that's one of my big beefs with the book - there is too much memoir and not enough focus on Goldman's efforts to make Goldman Sachs the institution that it is (was). In addition, the obvious feud between the two families, which seems to rival the infamous feud of the Hatfields and the McCoys, is overly prevalent within the pages of the book.

Truthfully, if I had to purchase this book, I would probably pass on the opportunity, because it did not meet my goal of being an economic/business type history. Keep these things in mind before picking this one up - fun read, but not overly deep, and doesn't really present any new material for historical analysis.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Story, June 2, 2010

By 

Neil Kottler "Neil" (Palo Alto, CA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: When Money Was In Fashion: Henry Goldman, Goldman Sachs, and the Founding of Wall Street (Hardcover)

I can understand the frustration many book buyers may have had with this book. It is misnamed. Someone looking for information about the history of Wall Street has to go elsewhere; it's not really covered in "When Money Was In Fashion." Now unless the author had control over naming the book, which is highly unlikely, the fault lies with the publisher. However, what June Fisher has written is not only utterly fascinating, it is so beautifully told; very lyrical. And the subject of the title is absorbing. Henry Goldman was much more than a Wall Street figurehead or tycoon. He led a complete life, involved in the arts, music, science, a true Renaissance man. Yet the rupture between him and his kinsmen, the Sachs family, is mystifying to me; how such a close-knit family--the Goldmans and Sachs are related to each other--could become so distant that it would last a century or more. Wonderful tales of Albert Einstein and the child prodigy Yehudi Menuhin, obviously a gifted musician who lacked a backbone when he declined to play his Strad for Goldman when the old gentleman was blind and dying--the same Strad Goldman had benevolently purchased for him. The story about his relationship with Germany before, during and after World War I, his views on German society and his impatience with those who sought to subjugate Germany at the Treaty of Versailles, are also fascinating. Anyone interested in an excellent biography would delight in June Fisher's wonderful tale of her grandfather.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Mildly entertaining, March 21, 2010

By 

BrianB (Northern California) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: When Money Was In Fashion: Henry Goldman, Goldman Sachs, and the Founding of Wall Street (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

This chatty, informal history of the Goldman and Sachs families was not at all what I expected. This is no formal history of the great financial house of Goldman Sachs, no instructive tale of banking lore. Fisher meanders through 150 years of family history like a loquacious aunt, throwing off anecdotes and idiosyncratic personal appraisals of family members, dropping brief mention of scandals, then dallying over details of mundane daily affairs. The men of the family are handsome and intelligent, the women beautiful and elegant, the children far above average. She mentions the deficit of attention that the children suffer from their parents, but does not delve into their emotional lives in any detail. She uses colloquial expressions and cliché's with abandon: "The cat was out of the bag." "Tall dark and handsome..." "Sam, a rock ribbed Republican..." This is an easy and pleasant book to read, but not particularly informative.

The author sometimes misstates factual details, especially in the financial arena. She uses footnotes to some original sources, but also refers to popular non fiction. She relies on authors like Steven Birmingham and Lisa Endlich for many details. The result is a mostly uncritical and occasionally gushing assessment of the family and the firm.

I cringed a few times, particularly when, at Henry Goldman's funeral, the author describes how her father quoted Polonius and attributed it to Hamlet. He asserted that the deceased might be summed up in a few words, namely the "To thine own self be true" speech. There was apparently no recognition that this speech was made by one of the biggest blowhards in Shakespeare, full of trite syllogisms that were crafted to seem insufferable. There was no mention of the irony that this same speech includes the admonition "neither a borrower nor a lender be." The author quotes it without comment or correction.

The Sachs family gets very little room in this history. The author devotes most of the book to her immediate relatives. The Goldman family has a fascinating history, but this account of their history is only mildly entertaining.