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Summary: Business, biography all in one.
Review: Chernow's exhaustive look into the House of Morgan is a thrilling look into the most powerful financial dynasty in the world. I couldn't put it down.
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Summary: Good book, lots of characters, long read
Review: Great book if you want to get an understanding of investment banking. It is, however, extremely long and has a lot of characters which are hard to keep track of.
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Summary: Point to consider
Review: I have not read this book but would consider buying it if its on tape. Do you have a copy on tape. If you do, please indicate it on the ad for the book(s) for better customer choosing. THANKS.
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Summary: Historical Gold
Review: I have read all four of Chernow's books and, for my money, this is the one to read. Whereas THE WARBURGS sometimes lacks a consistently interesting character to hang the minutiae of narrative detail upon (after a while it became difficult for me to figure out who was who) -- and whereas John D. Rockefeller's character isn't compelling enough to justify the 700+ pages alloted to him in TITAN -- THE HOUSE OF MORGAN, though no less weighty than Chernow's other tomes (excluding, of course, the concise DEATH OF THE BANKER), is happily missing the longueurs and repetitions of the one, and the slightly embarrassing over-identification of author and subject of the other. For unlike the thin-lipped, insufferably self-righteous, toadish Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan was a larger-than-life personality -- inscrutably complex enough to warrant such comprehensive treatment -- and the tale of the institution he spawned contains nary a dull moment. In this case, let it indeed be said that an institution is the shadow of one man!Simply put, this is richly-patterned, finely-detailed, eminently compelling history. On the downside, as a prose stylist Ron Chernow seems to think that he's Henry James, but isn't, and the writing tends to be, well, a tad bit self-consciously cluttered, even awkward. But this is perhaps a carping observation as most readers probably won't be bothered by it.
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Summary: a three credit class on the history of American finance
Review: I learned more from this book than i did in many of my mba classes. It takes a real commitment to finish, but for anyone with a true interest in finance, Wall Street, etc., this book will be well worth the time. I learned, among other things, how the founder of GM ended up running a bowling alley in Flint, Michigan, and how JP Morgan annd Dupont wound up with a majority of GM's stock. I also learned how such firms as First Boston and BT came into existence--a great reading experience
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Summary: No Words Can Truly Describe The Value Of This Book
Review: I purchased this book back in June 1999. From the very first page I was trapped. It tells the untold story of American History. I can truly say, JP Morgan's Bank had their hands in every major event of the late 19th to early 20th century. The most interesting section of the book was that of JP Morgan and JP Morgan Jr. You will also learn that Morgan's bank would have not been so dominate if it were not for the other members on the team. JPM literally saved this country from devastation more than once. So much so that the Government created new laws because they were scared that one man would have so much power. BUY IT AND LEARN FROM IT!...
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Summary: Brian Wayne Wells, Esquire, reviews "The House of Morgan"
Review: If a book, once read, does not remain on the shelf, but is referred back to on a frequent basis for additional information, it is a book that is well worth its purchase price. One such book is the Ron Chernow's "House of Morgan" (1990). As this reviewer reads other books on the economic history of the United States and relations between Britain and the United States in the 1890's, this book on the life and times of banker J.P. Morgan,his son and the banking firm they developed,is a book often used as a reference guide. The Morgan banking firm has had a tremendous impact on the history of the United States and Europe in the last part of the nineteenth century and the entire twentieth century. Reading this book, conveys that impact in a style that won the book the 1990 National Book Award
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Summary: The Saga of a Many-faceted Powerhouse
Review: In "The House of Morgan", Ron Chernow gives a fascinating account of the rise to prominence of the Morgan, one of the world's most influential banking dynasties during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The author narrates, with much clarity, the metamorphosis of JP Morgan into a powerhouse during the Baronial Age, the taming and breakdown during the Diplomatic Age, and its comeback with a vengeance during the Casino Age. Furthermore, Chernow excels in giving life to the characters of the House of Morgan, their allies as well as foes, against the economic, political and social backdrop of their time. The reader progressively comes to the understanding of how much the US financial system is indebted to the domestic and overseas tribulations of a single bank. No other US bank has been able to emulate the power and influence that the House of Morgan has exercised under its various legal disguises since its birth in the City. The repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act does not offer the guarantee that JP Morgan Chase & Co. and Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, the current incarnations of the House of Morgan, will one day be reunited again. Powerful public and private interests probably have too much to fear and lose from the rise of the Phoenix from its ashes.
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Summary: Understanding Morgan
Review: It's hard to imagine sympathy, let alone interest, for a personality like Morgan's. If you want to arouse resentment and suspicion among most American's, mention Wall Street and 10 to 1 you're going to score.
But go-zillionaires are people, too*. Ron Chernow does another wonderful job here, as he did with his book on the Rockefellers, "Titan." Morgan was not anywhere near as "public" or colorful as the Rockefellers, so it's tougher to maintain reader interest. Chernow does it, though, by telling a detailed and meticulously researched story in an engaging way.
From this book, the average Wall Street hater learns of how Morgan amassed one of the United States' largest fortunes, and how, more than once, he used that fortune in a public-spirited manner, bailing our economy out when the government was philosophically opposed to doing so. He does not come across as a particularly greedy man, but a very, very careful one, with a huge sense of responsibility and purpose. Unlike the Vanderbilts, his progeny did not engage in an unseemly race of consicuous consumption, too.
It is a book you might think you'd have no use for, but when you're done, you'll think you've read a great biograhpical novel and, like me, realize with deep satisfaction that you just read something...true.
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*Apologies to Forrest Gump
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Summary: An epic tale about an epic man.
Review: JP Morgan set much of modern American finance on its axis and started it turning. In his day, he was a private citizen who acted as the central banker in the largest economy in the world. Not once, but twice, was JP Morgan alone able to corral market-wide panics that not even the US government could halt. Morgan acted as purchasing agent for Great Britain as it stood alone against Germany before the US entered WWII. Morgan was truly a man larger than those the system allows to exist today.
This book also shows how and why efforts were made, many undertaken to limit Morgan, to change the system so that one person couldn't wield the power that Morgan plyed in his day.
Chernow captures the entire tale of Morgan's life and the era in which he lived in an easy-to-read style that maintains a good pace.
A great book for lovers of history, biography, or finance. Highly recommended.
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