Wall Street

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America's Dream Palace

Steve Fraser

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Meet the imperious aristocrat, the wily confidence man, the Napoleonic hero, and the soulless sinner—iconic figures on the Street since the days of the Revolution

Wall Street: no other place on earth is so singularly identified with money and the power of money. And no other American institution has inspired such deep moral, cultural, and political ambivalence. Is the Street an unbreachable bulwark defending commercial order? Or is it a center of mad ambition?

This book recounts the colorful history of America’s love-hate relationship with Wall Street. Steve Fraser frames his fascinating analysis around the roles of four iconic Wall Street types—the aristocrat, the confidence man, the hero, and the immoralist—all recurring figures who yield surprising insights about how the nation has wrestled, and still wrestles, with fundamental questions of wealth and work, democracy and elitism, greed and salvation. Spanning the years from the first Wall Street panic of 1792 to the dot.com bubble-and-bust and Enron scandals of our own time, the book is full of stories and portraits of such larger-than-life figures as J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and Michael Milken. Fraser considers the conflicting attitudes of ordinary Americans toward the Street and concludes with a brief rumination on the recent notion of Wall Street as a haven for Everyman.

Steve Fraser is an author, an editor, and a historian whose many publications include the award-winning books Labor Will Rule: Sidney Hillman and the Rise of American Labor and Every Man a Speculator: A History of Wall Street in American Life. He is senior lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania and cofounder of the American Empire Project, Metropolitan Books. He has written for the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Nation, and the American Prospect.

“In this age of agitated amnesiacs, Americans have forgotten that nothing is new – that in other times money and power were forged into a conspiracy against the public. Steve Fraser connects vividly to that past, reminding us that this present financial crisis is not the first time our hearts have been broken by Wall Street peddlers of the American Dream.” – Bill Moyers

“In this age of agitated amnesiacs, Americans have forgotten that nothing is new—that in other times money and power were forged into a conspiracy against the public. Steve Fraser connects vividly to that past, reminding us that this present financial crisis is not the first time our hearts have been broken by Wall Street peddlers of the American Dream.”—Bill Moyers

"This book is written with Fraser’s customary panache and scrupulous attention to detail. If you’re after a fascinating take on one of our ultimate icons, this is it.”—Mike Wallace, John Jay College (CUNY), co-author of Gotham: A History of New York City to 1898

"Provides a rich historical context from which to reflect on the purpose and morality of our financial markets."—Robert Shiller, author of Irrational Exuberance

"Fraser is almost lyrical as he weaves together his tale of how the image of Wall Street fits into American culture and mythology. . . . His book is . . . recommended for larger business collections in both public and academic libraries."—Library Journal

"Fraser . . . reviews the complictaed love-hate relationship between Americans and the financial markets by using Wall Street as the symbol of money and its power. . . . This is an excellent book that traces the history of Wall Street through those who shaped it, for better or for worse."—Booklist

"The history of American attitudes toward the financiers of Wall Street, as shown in newspapers, novels and prosecutions, is the subject of Fraser's book. It's a remarkable tale, not just for the plain facts of what they did but also for the dramatic swings in their image. Were they heroes or con men, aristocrats or immoral scoundrels? It depended on the era, and to some extent on whether their successes seemed to be enriching the rest of us."—Floyd Norris, New York Times Book Review

"Wall Street is the fabled heart of American capitalism. And according to historian and author Steve Fraser, four metaphorical images are central to the Wall Street mystique: The Aristocrat, The Confidence Man, The Hero, and The Immoralist. In his delightfully written, sweeping history Wall Street, he shows how those four types have continually appeared and re-appeared throughout U.S. stock market and business history, as citizens react to the ups and downs of the business cycles and the towering figures who dominated each era."—David D'Alessandro, Toronto Globe & Mail

“This interesting history . . . will appeal to anyone interested in financial history or the development of Wall Street. . . . Recommended. All collections.”—Choice

ISBN: 9780300151435
Publication Date: April 14, 2009

208 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/4
6 b/w illus.

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