Rating: 
Summary: Stick With it, You'll Be Pleased
Review: "The House of Morgan" is one of the best business biography books I've ever read. It is an unbelievably comprehensive piece of research work on an important banking history in the United States. The stories of the people behind JP Morgan & Co give readers so much hopes and belief that anything is possible in your life. Mr. Chernow covers the company's historical and current background in great detail. He also presents a more technical view on what happen in the cycles of US economy that spans over many decades. What I like most about the book is the coverage of individuals involved in building and leading the firms (JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley). These groups of talented individuals are amazing leaders whose stories are worth reading. I thought that the first 40 pages were pretty slow, but the actions did pick up real soon. By the 700th page, I was hoping there would be a second book written on the House of Morgan. I was especially impressed with Mr. Thomas Lamont that I proceeded to read a separate biography on him. I loved the book so much that I went on to buy some other books related to it - (RJR Nabisco story on Leverage Buyout and The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst). It's a thick book but it's really worth the time to read. You'll be pleased with yourself!
Rating:
Summary: Stick With it, You'll Be Pleased
Review: "The House of Morgan" is one of the best business biography books I've ever read. It is an unbelievably comprehensive piece of research work on an important banking history in the United States. The stories of the people behind JP Morgan & Co give readers so much hopes and belief that anything is possible in your life. Mr. Chernow covers the company's historical and current background in great detail. He also presents a more technical view on what happen in the cycles of US economy that spans over many decades. What I like most about the book is the coverage of individuals involved in building and leading the firms (JP Morgan and Morgan Stanley). These groups of talented individuals are amazing leaders whose stories are worth reading. I thought that the first 40 pages were pretty slow, but the actions did pick up real soon. By the 700th page, I was hoping there would be a second book written on the House of Morgan. I was especially impressed with Mr. Thomas Lamont that I proceeded to read a separate biography on him. I loved the book so much that I went on to buy some other books related to it - (RJR Nabisco story on Leverage Buyout and The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst). It's a thick book but it's really worth the time to read. You'll be pleased with yourself!
Rating:
Summary: Powerful Bankers before the Federal Reserve
Review: "The House of Morgan" can serve as a proxy for the history of the American financial system before the establishment of the Federal Reserve. Morgan's influence on the world financial system was demonstrated by the raising of loans for the English, French and German governments. Morgan was also well known as the sponsor of many railroad bonds at the turn of the last century. As such the bank was instrumental in building the infrastructure which allowed the industrial revolution to bloom with enormous strenth here in America. It is said that at the turn of the century JP Morgan had underwritten half of the securities traded on the NYSE. Morgan's great strength was a function of the American/British arms of the bank and their ability to transfer capital and wealth between between the two nations. Each nation has had economic dominance in different periods of history. Yet many view JP Morgan as a villian or a greedy banker with dollar signs in his eyes. Ron Chernow's five star treatise on Morgan reveals him to be a deeply religious man who was intent on bringing orderly rationalization to the capital markets and restraining competition which he believed to be counter-productive in capitalist economy. He and his bank were deeply private and this work does a wonderful job of gently pulling back the curtain at 23 Wall Street. For those interested in the capital markets a must read!
Rating:
Summary: Consistently fascinating
Review: A consistently fascinating account of the rise of modern finance and its relationship to the development of large scale and multinationalindustry and modern government. The portraits of the Morgan family and associates are sharp and illuminating, both in their public and private dimensions. Two reservations. It would have been helpful to have a chart/timeline of the leading figures of the related Morgan banks to supplement the chart of the organizational changes in the House of Morgan. Second,too often the author relies on a rather shorthand explanation of the financial techniques and stratagems involved in his accounts of the Morgan banking and investment empire. A little more explanation would have added to the appreciation and understanding of readers without a serious background in finance.
Rating: 
Summary: Running out of adjectives
Review: A huge door-stopper of a book. I wouldn't have read it if a friend had
not recommended it. Once I'd started it, though, it grew on me: Chernow has written a very readable
personal history of real people, warts and all (literally!), in writing this history of perhaps
the most famous bank in the world. Reviewing this book is not easy: one runs out of adjectives to describe
author Ron Chernow's success in handling the vast amounts of material
and information. I personally found the earlier parts (which are more about
individuals) more interesting and easier to read than the later parts (which,
as the times change, become more about larger numbers of smaller people; the
names and the companies proliferate to a mind-numbing swirl), and I lost interest
towards the end, skimming through to the parts that I found of particular
personal interest. First, it's a history book, but one that not only impinges on the present
(I find out how Chase Manhattan and Citibanks were born, for instance)
but also comes right up to date (well, OK, it ends in the late 1980s).
Second, it's a history book that manages to be about both large-scale events
(like the 2 World Wars) and real, individual people (I learned that "J.P
Morgan" was actually 2 people - father and son). Chernow does a great
job of bringing all these people to life: many of them faced the same dilemmas as people today, and many of them (tho not all) were phenomenally successful, yet lived and died lonely, frustrated, or unhappy. A fascinating tale, but definitely a book for a long vacation.
Rating:
Summary: One of the great books of business history
Review: A terrific read!Ron Chernow does an excellent job in reviewing the life of the greatest American financier and the legacy he created. A must read for anyone interested in the history of investment banking and how America took away the mantle as the financial center of the world away from Europe this century. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The King of American banks.
Review: Chernow excellently portrays our country's most famous banking dynasty from its formation during the early 1800's to the late twentieth century. Throughout the book, readers are entreated with not only the history of the Morgan family but also the transformation of American banking and finance of the past two centuries. The Morgan history began with Junius Morgan. He was concerned with establishing America's financial credit with European countries, which were very reluctant to lend money to a country that had been recently formed. Their doubts were reinforced when several American states repudiated payment on loans. In his efforts to preserve America's credit worthiness with Great Britain, Junius Morgan created a financial link between the Anglo-Saxon countries that would influence Morgan politics for the next century. The most famous member of the family was J.P. Morgan, who presided over the bank during the Age of the Robber Barons. During his tenure, the Morgan bank would play the role of lender of last resort for America. Because laissez-faire capitalism was the prevalent practice during this era, only the Morgan bank under the energetic J.P. Morgan possessed the financial and political clout to organize efforts to stop widespread bank failures and catastophic stock declines. Despite being portrayed in the media by Populists as crooked and elitist, the Morgan bank continued to play this important role for the American economy and remained influential nationally even after the creation of the Federal Reserve System. Although the Morgans were economically powerful, they possessed many human frailties. Many of the Morgan men were reluctant to participate in the family business. Even J.P. Morgan, despite his fame and power, was for most of his life fearful of his father and felt constantly nervous about the imperfections of his nose. Chernow is lauded for depicting the personal lives of the Morgan family. Despite desperate attempts by the Morgan bank to remain influential and anonymous, the combination of the American public's demand for accountability, its fear of elitist organizations, and the rise of international finance and trade, divided the Morgan bank and forced its successors into such mundane practices as the public listing of its financial records and the offering of common stocks. The abandonment of such traditional practices as the Gentleman Banker's Code culminated in the merger mania of the 1980s, as Morgan Guaranty, Morgan Grenfell, and Morgan Stanley each sometimes assisted one client in acquiring another of its client. From cooperation to cutthroat competition between bankers, the House of Morgan is filled with triumphs and tragedies of Morgan and American history. It is recommended for every American adult. I am looking forward to reading Titan.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Chernow is able to combine immense detail with complete readability. Morgan was the ultimate Mr America and was responsible for the growth of the US into the power she is today. The divergence of the House of Morgan was also meticulously chronicled.
Rating:
Summary: The House of Morgan
Review: Chernow vividly portrays the influence that the Morgan banks have had on the history of the Western economy since the late 18th century. The epic story of the development of the American industrial experience is inextricably related to the history of the Morgan banks. Though this fascinating story is virtually the same as that told by Kathleen Bunk in Morgan Grenfell 1838-1988 ( LJ 12/89), Chernow adds color and personality with an emphasis on the 20th-century development of the bank. Working with recently discovered Morgan archives, he reveals institutional details long hidden by the protective secrecy of the family. This superb history will be an important book. BOMC, Fortune, and History Book Club featured alternates.
Rating:
Summary: Now for the rest of the story...
Review: Chernow's book is good for the sweeping overview that it is. It left me wondering, though, what is the story behind the story. The Morgan partners continually are painted in too favorable a light by Chernow. I'd like to know more about how Morgans not only used the "old boy" network to their advantage, but really created and controlled the core of that network for decades. Morgans had its fingers in *everything* at the previous turn of the century. But I have the feeling that it wasn't simply due to the Morgan partners simply being upright bankers!
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