Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.

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.

Henry Goldman's grand-daughter, June Breton Fisher, writes a highly personal account of her grandfather. She starts with his German roots, his grandfather, parents and their relationship with the Sachs family. The author emphasizes the influence a German heritage had on Henry's values and actions throughout the book.

The second chapter goes into how banks started to flourish in New York as wealth moved from California to the Eastern US. Three chapters document the Goldman Sachs investment bank, it's growth, clients and conflicts.

Henry is then free to wander around Europe, meeting people, discussing ideas and picking up art. Much is written about his relatives, his upstate New York camp and his blindness in later life. There's plenty to interest genealogists - a gold mine for those interested in family, a distraction for those looking for a business biography.

Henry's role in building Goldman Sachs is only part of the story. Indeed although the book mentions how hard he worked and names companies that Goldman Sachs took public, it is not a book that dwells on his business strategies and strengths.

The writing flows and it's an easy read. The structure is clear and well-organized. The book is full of anecdotes and tidbits - about restrictions on Bavarian Jews, Duveen's art business, Einstein's friendship, Yehudi Menuhin's childhood and interpersonal relationships.

The author paints vivid pictures of Henry's wife, Babette, especially in Chapter 10 where Henry dies. By the book's end Henry's character is so familiar, that the reader is left feeling sad and sorry.

I recommend this book to anyone wanting to understand the environment in which Henry Goldman operated, during war time, roaring twenties and depressed thirties. If you are looking for a business biography then this book is not it, but it's a good account of his personal life and contributions.

Regarding the title - has money really gone out of fashion?

Some writing, regardless of its content, is written so well that it pulls me in to read some more. This book is one of those books. The content proved to be no less interesting: The Goldman family of the Goldman Sachs fame.

The book starts off with many generations ago in Germany between the 18th and the 19th centuries; even then the Jews were harshly treated with freedoms curtailed and quotas set as to how many could live in a town. Those who had the smarts and the energy left their familial orbits to travel far places like the United States for happier and more successful lives. The Goldman, who escaped the gravity of the familiar back in Germany, was Marcus. First in San Francisco, then in Philadelphia, and finally in New York City, everywhere Marcus went he recognized a new technology, learned it, improved it, sold it in services and goods. Story of Marcus gradually fades out and the story of Henry fades in, but the two men were very much alike in their hard work and hard play, and it should be said that Marcus' father, Wolf, was not different characteristically from his descendants, minus the opportunities.

With every great success story, such as the Goldman wealth, there is at least one really big innovation. Marcus had created the Initial Public Offering (IPO) mechanism in the stock exchange process. He was at the fountainhead of innovation gushing out talent, and he took a cut out from each drop. The drops accumulated to an immense wealth we all know about today.

Towards the end of the book there is a whole chapter on a violinist I had no conscious knowledge of: Yehudi Menuhin. A child prodigy, the chapter is titled, and talks about the relationship of this twelve-year old and the Goldman family. The latter's financial support of this 'kid' made me curious to learn more about Menuhin. I immediately went to youtube and listened...Einstein was right, listening to him play makes one believe in a higher being. While Menuhin's interpretation of Beethoven is sublime, his playing "Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 5" resonates the most with my soul. Henry Goldman cared nothing of the sixty-thousand dollars he paid in the midst of the great depression for Menuhin's violin. Because what he paid for delivered something priceless, and endless.

I truly enjoyed this book, as did a friend who borrowed it. Not only gave insight into the beginnings of Goldman Sachs, their ideals and investment goals,but an account of the interaction and problems between the Goldmans and the Sachs. It provides peak at the lives of the very wealthy families during this time period. All were hard-working, devoted to their work, but knew how to enjoy the fruits of their labor, Names of the people involved are recognized by all of us---Rockefeller, Menuhen, Einstein, and more. Fascinating to see the many sides of Henry Goldman; banker, family man,a person of influence in world politics, art lover and philanthropist. An easy read Annette Martin

June Breton Fisher writes an interesting albeit uneven history of her grandfather Henry Goldman and the investment bank that his father Marcus Goldman and Joseph Sachs started. Later Henry and his friend Philip Lehman would create a twenty year partnership that moved both firms to become full-fledged investment banks. Fisher expands on much of Henry's love for his German heritage and his position on WWI with the pressures that moved Germany to war. Interesting history is retold on the problems that arose from the Treaty of Versailles and Henry's desire to avoid the problems of trying to preserve the old empires at Germany's expense. Fisher explains that her grandfather really saw and wished for German and America to team up with Germany providing the brains and the U.S. providing the brawn but with Hitler's rise and Jewish Pogroms this would become completely impossible. Family fighting and behind the scene tensions would drive a wedge between the Goldman and Sachs finally resulting in Henry retiring in 1917. Buying Old Masters, hobnobbing with Albert Einstein, and helping child prodigy violinist Yehudi Menuhin would then became the life passion of his remaining years.
Fisher adds in many family reminiscences of fun at the family retreat at Bull Point Camp as well as little tidbits of family gossip. I really found the need for a family tree diagram to follow all the family member that were brought up within this book. She did answer, at least from her side, a question that I had regarding Goldman Sachs closed-end funds that were in essence something like a Ponzi scheme. She explained that Wadill Catchings, hired to fill Henry's shoes, was the huckster promoter of these funds. Catching's house of cards would collapse losing investments, savings and hurt Goldman Sachs for years to come. The question of what Henry would think of the firm today is lightly touched on. Today as Goldman Sachs moved from investment banking to bank holding company and its' connection with AIG, government bailouts and the housing market/Wall Street crashing, it would be very interesting to get his perspective. This is not much of a history of Wall Street other than a look into the life of one of its' pillars. Not a bad read if your interested in the life of Henry Goldman but look elsewhere for Wall Street history.

"Money is always in Fashion" was one of Henry Goldman's favorite sayings. This book is written by his granddaughter June Breton Fisher and because of that family connection, it probably includes lots of insider information that hasn't yet been published.
Henry Goldman was the son of poor German immigrants. "The family name had not always been Goldman." In 1811 the Bavarian authorities changed the law outlawing Jews from having family names and required them to henceforth assume family names. Henry's ancestors chose the name "Goldmann" hoping that it would prove lucky for the family. Mark and his younger brother Simon immigrated to Philadelphia to escape the prejudices of their homeland and make their fortune in the United States. His name was changed to "Marcus" by the immigration authorities in 1853 when Mark became a naturalized citizen and also anglicized his family name by dropping the "n" to become Goldman. Marcus fell in love with an 18-year-old seamstress named Bertha and they quickly married. Henry was soon born to the happy couple. Henry suffered from astigmatism and this would eventually result in total blindness. Their friends from Bavaria Joseph and Sophia Sachs were often crossing paths with them as they too searched for a new home in America. Sachs wanted to set up a school and teach.
Goldman Sachs Company can trace its roots back to the farmlands of Bavaria near Wurzburg.
Mark and Bertha followed the American Dream and soon began their own business by purchasing a new invention called the Singer Sewing Machine and started making "sturdy, inexpensive clothing" intended for sale to newly arrived immigrates. "Over the next six years, the store thrived so well that he sold his sister's husband a partnership and moved to much larger quarters in a tonier location and opened a men's haberdashery."
In 1869 Marcus sold his share of the business and moved to New York City where he and his wife saw almost limitless opportunities. Marcus then set up a banking business (there were no regulations about who could be a banker) where he bought promissory notes at a discount in the morning and sold them at a profit to other banks in the afternoon. These notes, "originally referred to as trade bills, later came to be known as commercial paper." As his father's banking activities prospered, "Henry and his brother Julius attended the Sachs Collegiate Institute for Boys," which had by then been founded by the Goldman's old friend Joseph Sachs. Henry was accepted to Harvard, but his near-slightness made keeping up with his studies impossible and he dropped out of Harvard after one term. Not immediately invited to join the family business, Henry accepted a traveling salesman's job that required he travel back and forth across the young nation mostly by train. "In the 1870's it afforded Henry the time he needed for introspection and observation." He mixed with the small businessman settling the new nation and saw many possibilities for investment and/or financing.
Henry's eventual inclusion in his father's firm is a fascinating story of how hard work and filling the public's needs powered the growth of Goldman and Sacks.
The first five or six chapters of this tome were a mostly straightforward biography. Starting in Chapter Six "Phoenix Rising" the biography of Henry Goldman changes from a chronological themed book to a collection of reminiscences. For example, much of that chapter which starts out talking about the Peace Conference after World War I that sowed the seeds of Hitler's rise to power, but in mid-chapter the book switches to being about Albert Einstein who was one of Henry's good friends. Einstein is very interesting and this is almost a minor biography of the great scientist.
Chapter Seven is almost totally about Henry's art collection and the famous and cagey art dealer Joseph Duveen. Again, like the Einstein material, this is interesting information but since the chronological order is broken, it becomes a little difficult to follow. Suddenly, the book becomes redundant as the characters again pass through previously discussed events. That chapter ends with the sale of Henry's art collection. Chapter Eight is about "Bull Point Camp," Henry's grand summer home in the Adirondacks. Again interesting, but it would have been more interesting had it been seamlessly worked into the main portion of the biography.
One of the best portions of the book dealt with how the Nazi Party and Hitler managed to take over Germany without the Jewish people being aware of the looming danger. Henry was in Berlin having a series of eye operations and didn't see the Nazi tidal wave approaching until it painfully obvious to even the blind (no pun intended). "Although to begin with wealthy Germans laughed at the Nazis and considered them contemptible socialist boors, the proletariat were more easily swayed. The Goldmans...were certain that the regime was just a passing fad and would soon blow away." It's fascinating to see how Honorary German Citizen Henry finally grasped and reports the truth of the situation. He even met with President Roosevelt about it. Roosevelt's reaction was appalling.
What starts out as a very interesting biography of Henry Goldman and the founding of Goldman Sachs ends up a touch muddled and confusing. If the granddaughter of one of Sachs family were to write a book about the founding of Goldman Sacks it would differ greatly from this volume. The Goldman and Sacks families were so upset with each other that they eventually stopped socializing or even speaking to each other for almost a century. The book is still a good read, but in the end it falters and becomes mostly a collection of sentimental family reminiscences but with a few interesting insights. I wonder if the Sacks family retreat was called "Bear Point?" If so, it would be a relatively accurate statement of the Bull and Bear business practices of the very different founders of Goldman Sacks.

June Breton Fisher the granddaughter of Henry Goldman, who founded Goldman Sachs, provides an intimate look into the life of her grandfather and the way in which he invented Wall Street. This book contains many fascinating accounts of the early days of Wall Street, the trials of an immigrant, the lifestyle of the new rich class in the post Gilded Age world and a look at how America's financial potential was shaped. There are few books that offer such a close view to how the company was formed and a look at the man who did it. The book is very easy to read and provides an almost diary overview of the life of Henry Goldman showing all of the talents he had in the creation of a new way to make money. Not the ponzi schemes or scandals of today's Wall Street but a way to develop assessments of a companies' financial health such as a P/E ratio. The biggest complaint about this book comes in two areas. The first that there are long tangents that have very little to do with the actual topic itself and get deep into World War II history with no real relevant tie in other than the participants being German like Henry Goldman. The second is the lack of sources that are readily identifiable. A bibliography of further readings would be very helpful and crystallize an interesting narrative. Overall for those who want a personal look at how Wall Street's rise came about this is a great place to start.

If you want to learn about the Goldman family - who married which "plucky gal" and who didn't get along with which people and why - this book will completely satisfy your craving for details. You'll find out which sons were favored by which parents and why. You'll learn about the many different businesses that the many different Goldmans' entered and exited.

If, however, you are interested in understanding Wall Street, finance, or anything of an economic nature, this book will frustrate you. Frankly put, there ain't much there.