by Jean Strouse
First published 2014
Jean Strouse constructs a comprehensive portrait of J. Pierpont Morgan, the financier who dominated American capitalism at the turn of the twentieth century. Drawing on extensive new research, she examines how Morgan transformed himself into Wall Street's Napoleon, restructuring railroads and forging industrial behemoths like General Electric and U.S. Steel. During an era without a Federal Reserve, he functioned as America's unofficial central banker, wielding unprecedented financial power. Strouse explores Morgan's contradictory nature as both ruthless robber baron and generous arts patron, a man who maintained two marriages, accumulated six residences and three yachts, supported mistresses, raised four children, and assembled one of America's premier art collections. The biography reveals the human complexity beneath the public mythology, showing how Morgan's personal struggles and ambitions shaped his business empire and cultural legacy.
Genres: biography, 20th-century, business, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: complex-protagonist, power-dynamics
Setting: Wall Street, America
Period: Turn of the 20th Century
848 pages · Paperback · Random House Trade Paperbacks