The Last Partnerships: Inside the Great Wall Street Dynasties

Rating:
Summary: Excellent history
Review: I bought this book after I saw that Booklist named it one of the top ten business books of 2001. It divides each chapter into two parts, each dealing with two investment banking houses that were similar or closely related somehow.The result is excellent. The histories are clear, concise and full of color. Good anecdotes are put in boxes that complement the text. I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone interested in Wall Street.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent history
Review: In retrospect, I should have expected this book to be as poorly written as it is. In the course of 300 pages, Professor Geisst attempts to provide the history of approximately 17 banking houses --- which translate into about 18 pages per house. (As a comparison -- Ron Chernow dedicated over 700 pages to the Morgan dynasty in his book. Imagine trying to condense that down into 18 pages). To call such treatments superficial is an understatement. Additionally, the book suffers from organizational flaws, particularly toward the beginning of the work. One even wonders if significant portions of The Last Partnerships were merely taken from Geisst's earlier work, Wall Street: A History, and shuffled around to create a new book.

Rating:
Summary: Barely A Summertime Beach Read
Review: In retrospect, I should have expected this book to be as poorly written as it is. In the course of 300 pages, Professor Geisst attempts to provide the history of approximately 17 banking houses --- which translate into about 18 pages per house. (As a comparison -- Ron Chernow dedicated over 700 pages to the Morgan dynasty in his book. Imagine trying to condense that down into 18 pages). To call such treatments superficial is an understatement. Additionally, the book suffers from organizational flaws, particularly toward the beginning of the work. One even wonders if significant portions of The Last Partnerships were merely taken from Geisst's earlier work, Wall Street: A History, and shuffled around to create a new book.

Rating:
Summary: Great Wall Street History
Review: This is a great piece of micro Wall Street history. The author looks at the financial district from street level, from the perspective of the Wall Street houses themselves.The stories range from good to fascinating and the asides in some chapters are great anecdotes. How the houses succeeded and why they ultimately dispapeared as partnerships is a great story and it is well told here. I would recommend this book to anyone with an interest in finance and history.