Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power (P.S.) (Paperback)

by John Steele Gordon (Author) "ABRAHAM LINCOLN thought that a nation-however much the whole might exceed the sum of its parts-consists of nothing more than its people, its land, and..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, United States, Wall Street (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
The word "epic" in the subtitle is a tip-off that instead of a critical history of the American economy, this book is a celebration of it. Nothing wrong with that, especially when the tale's told breezily and accurately. In fact, Gordon (The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street) notes the many stumbles and the frequent foolishness and corruption that attended the nation's rise as an economic powerhouse. The larger story of success is, in fact, an extraordinary one. The trouble is that the American economy, like every other, bends much out of shape. It has always provided opportunity but always with too much inequality. A full history of the American economy would take this into consideration—in the past as well as the present, and Gordon's doesn't. Also, his book sometimes wanders off into irrelevant subjects, like the origins of the computer, but his grasp of the larger picture is sure and his prose bright. His chapter on Northern and Southern Civil War finances is a model of its kind. Those seeking an introduction to the general history of American economic power will find few better places to start, as long as they keep in mind that the nation's economy is not perfect, its benefits not unalloyed and its future domination of other economic powerhouses by no means assured.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From The Washington Post's Book World/washingtonpost.com
More than a century ago, the steel titan Andrew Carnegie declared in his book Triumphant Democracy: "The old nations of the earth creep on at a snail's pace; the Republic thunders past with the rush of the express. The United States . . . has already reached the foremost rank among nations, and is destined soon to outdistance all others in the race. In population, in wealth, in annual savings, and in public credit; in freedom from debt, in agriculture, and in manufactures, America already leads the civilized world."

No historian, in Carnegie's day or since, has denied America's extraordinary economic growth, but interpreters have not agreed on the benefits and costs of that growth. Nor have they agreed on what constitutes the most important lesson of America's economic development. When they approach history's altar, some have argued that the lessons are to be found in the fire, from the raging engine of economic growth. Others have taken their lessons from the ashes, from the suffering of those singed in the process.

In An Empire of Wealth, John Steele Gordon, an accomplished historian of American business and a columnist for American Heritage magazine, puts the focus back on the fire, and he does so with verve and passion. His absorbing popular history recounts the triumphal saga of a collection of colonies that, having broken free of Europe's constricting hand, went on to convert a vast patrimony of virgin forests and generous natural resources into the world's most powerful economic system -- succeeding so wildly that today, with 6 percent of the world's land and population, the United States boasts "close to 30 percent of the world's gross domestic product."

Gordon is a knowledgeable and relentlessly optimistic chronicler, relating with great panache how America's turn toward liberty, growth and innovation produced wonders of synergy. He captures well the epiphanies of inventors, industrialists and speculators as these legendary self-made men spun together the fibers of American dominance. And he vividly recreates the climate of exigency that made America's wars such powerful economic catalysts. An Empire of Wealth offers a Promethean narrative of America's rise to economic dominance. Gordon's account is both highly readable and enlightening.

With a near-perfect ear for the apt quote and the telling phrase, Gordon marches the reader through America's seminal economic accomplishments -- from Alexander Hamilton's financial plans to the Erie Canal, the cotton gin and the piecemeal nurture of a blossoming economy; to the rise of steam energy, transatlantic shipping, the railroad, the telegraph, and the mega-businesses of petroleum, electrical energy, steel and automobiles; and finally to the Cold War boom and the Internet. Before the reader's eyes, an undeveloped land dotted with scattered farms, primitive roads and modest local markets is transformed into a Hamiltonian system of robust expansion, audacious investment and global reach.

Unfortunately, however, this narrative of primary colors and bold strokes lacks nuance and contrasting detail. As inventions and breakthroughs carry the story forward, Gordon downplays the unsavory aspects of a more textured American economy and swiftly dispatches more complicated issues like new economic departures. As a result, his conclusions are modestly scaffolded, offering more a point of view than a historical analysis.

While Gordon informs us that many "captains of industry" were impressive philanthropists, he does little to explain how this benevolence coexisted with brutal business practices and labor policies. Fascinated by the results of wealth production, he pays but passing attention to the circumstances under which this wealth was produced. He is satisfied to suggest that things were certainly worse elsewhere. No doubt they were, but these important issues bear profoundly on the story at hand. After all, concern about economic justice led Americans to make crucial modifications in laissez-faire capitalism in the hopes of adjusting an irregular and sometimes manipulated market.

Indeed, we read so