First published 2023
Diana B. Henriques chronicles Franklin D. Roosevelt's campaign to regulate Wall Street following the 1929 stock market crash. After winning the 1932 election on promises to curb ruthless capitalism, Roosevelt faced fierce opposition from financial elites who had operated without government restraint. The president assembled allies including Joseph P. Kennedy and future Supreme Court justice William O. Douglas to craft new rules protecting ordinary investors. Wall Street's establishment, led by New York Stock Exchange president Richard Whitney, resisted every proposed regulation. Henriques uses deep reporting and vivid storytelling to recreate this political struggle between competing visions of financial power and federal responsibility. The author demonstrates how this New Deal battle shaped modern American finance and money management. At a time when inequality mirrors Jazz Age levels, the book examines a period when the system functioned and leaders successfully implemented necessary reforms with public support.
Genres: history, 20th-century, business, economics, finance, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: historical-figures, political-drama
Setting: Wall Street, New York
Period: 1929, 1932
443 pages · Kindle Edition · Random House