Customer Reviews

100 Years of Wall Street

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This book, rich with wonderful old photos, gives a concise history of the last 100 years of the financial culture that has come to be known as Wall Street. A good blend of text, photos, and charts make this book interesting to the non-financial reader.

The author divided the book into decades and each chapter outlined the changes that occurred over those years.

At the beginning of the last century, Wall Street was known for its lack of financial regulation regarding trades. Scandals and outright swindles abounded. Four years after the Crash of 1929, FDR's administration passed nationwide banking and securities laws to make sure that this kind of disaster did not happen again.

Unfortunately, the real and distasteful inner workings of Wall Street were revealed in the Senate hearings. An SEC commissioner called investment bankers "financial termites". This knowledge scared investors away for the next 20 years.

In the early 50s, investing became popular with middle class investors for the first time in a generation, and mutual funds were developed after being gone for 30 years.

The 60s brought the birth of the modern mergers and acquisitions business in the U.S, and the days of small brokerage firms were coming to an end.

The 70s brought extensive reforms concerning commissions while the 80s were the years of junk bonds, insider trading scandals, and the savings and loan crisis.

The author called the 80s the decade of greed and the 90s the decade of boom. The Internet has brought about a totally new way of trading stocks and has made up-to-the-minute financial news available to everyone.

The changes in the last 100 years on Wall Street have been phenomenal, mirroring the technological changes in our society.

Charles R. Geisst's enjoyable book chronicles Wall Street in the twentieth century. He effectively captures the feel of the various boom and bust periods. The clear, informative text is supplemented with incredible black and white photographs of each period's key events and people, making it very evocative and intriguing. We at ... recommend this book to anyone - not only someone in business - who wants to learn about Wall Street's history. It would make a great gift for anyone who works in the financial industry or for a young person who is interested in how money works.

100 Years of Wall Street is one of the greatest books ever written. Its in depth analysis of the history of Wall Street is remarkable. It is an essential to anyone that is learning more about investments, yet it is still quite enjoyable without knowing anything about the subject. This is truly a remarkable read, and I would recommend it with my eyes closed and my hands tied behind my back!

100 Years of Wall Street is a beautiful decade-by-decade look at the history of "the street." Written by the well-known business author Charles R. Geisst, it is a sumptuous black-and-white exploration of Wall Street history. This may be best thought of as a companion volume to his other book (Wall Street: A History) as while that book concentrated on the characters, colorful and despicable, who created the financial world of today, the narrative in this book is a brief overview of the trends that occurred across a century, accompanied by a series of well-chosen photos. There are a number of charts that supplement the well-written narrative. If you know anyone with a deep interest in the financial markets, that engine of American commerce, this will make an ideal gift.
Jeffrey Morseburg

This book is interesting to those who love Wall St history but don't expect an in depth analysis of the last 100 years. Obviously this is a high level look with the book only being about 150 pages but the photos are what make it a joy to read. It was interesting to see how the market performed over these years and the author did a good job of adding some fun facts to visual display. In summary, not a lot of historical data but a pleasure to view.

I enjoyed looking at the pictures and reading the headlines. Very educational and informative.