by Sven Beckert
First published 2003
Beckert chronicles how New York's economic elite evolved during America's most transformative decades. He follows a small but diverse group of wealthy New Yorkers as they accumulated unprecedented influence between 1850 and 1900. The Civil War serves as a pivotal moment that reshapes this powerful class. During Reconstruction, these elites abandon their earlier free labor beliefs and embrace laissez-faire liberalism instead. Beckert examines their changing fortunes and character across fifty years of dramatic social upheaval. This comprehensive study illuminates a previously overlooked period in American social history. The book reveals how an American bourgeoisie emerged and consolidated power in the nation's financial capital. Beckert provides the first complete examination of nineteenth-century America's most influential economic group. Readers discover the mechanisms through which New York's wealthy class wielded economic, social, and political authority during the country's industrial transformation.
Genres: history, business, biography-memoir, economic-development, 19th-century, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: power-dynamics, social-change
Setting: New York
Period: 1850-1900, Reconstruction
492 pages · Paperback · Cambridge University Press