Rating: 
Summary: Sympathy for the baron
Review: No one writes about the history of modern finance better than Chernow and this is the biggest story of modern finance. What else do you need to know?The only downside for me was that the book¡¯s most compelling character, old red nose himself, dies a third of the way into the history, leaving us with a procession of interesting but by no means fascinating individuals to carry us through to the roaring 1980s. This is not to fault Chernow. He makes his aim clear from the start: to write about Morgan and the financial universe he helped create. He never pretends this is a tell-all about J.P. and his infamous philandering, temper and power-brokering, (though there was more than enough juicy tidbits to keep the pages turning). Most fascinating of all was Chernow's sympathetic portrayal of J.P. as a reluctant master of the universe, someone who took control of disorderly and scandal-ridden U.S. financial market to tame them and bring honor to the upstart United States of America. It was quite touching. Not what I expected when I picked up the story of America's most infamous robber baron. We could use someone like him today.
Rating:
Summary: Sympathy for the baron
Review: No one writes about the history of modern finance better than Chernow and this is the biggest story of modern finance. What else do you need to know? The only downside for me was that the book¡¯s most compelling character, old red nose himself, dies a third of the way into the history, leaving us with a procession of interesting but by no means fascinating individuals to carry us through to the roaring 1980s. This is not to fault Chernow. He makes his aim clear from the start: to write about Morgan and the financial universe he helped create. He never pretends this is a tell-all about J.P. and his infamous philandering, temper and power-brokering, (though there was more than enough juicy tidbits to keep the pages turning). Most fascinating of all was Chernow's sympathetic portrayal of J.P. as a reluctant master of the universe, someone who took control of disorderly and scandal-ridden U.S. financial market to tame them and bring honor to the upstart United States of America. It was quite touching. Not what I expected when I picked up the story of America's most infamous robber baron. We could use someone like him today.
Rating: 
Summary: Not Quite Dull, But
Review: Not as interesting as it should have been. Chernow could have made it more vivid by living more in the trees than amid the forest, region, or biosphere. I would've found it more engaging if there had been a more personal exposition of the players (i.e., more time spent on detailed exposition of individual events than on general descriptions and delineation of trends). I'm glad, though, that I read it. It was a very informative history. Maybe you will be, too.
Rating:
Summary: Behind-the-scene look at 19th/20th century history!
Review: Only in the epics about Robert Moses (and the pivotal role he played in the development of New York) and Harrison Gray Otis (and the pivotal role that the Publisher of the L.A. Times played in the development of Southern California) has a book so captivated me. Chernow gets underneath the big events of the 19th and 20th century, digging deeply, and always following the money. Well worth its price. A whole new perspective about finance, banking, and the role they play in global economic development.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent and detailed
Review: Ron Chernow has been able to accomplish what he did with the Warburgs, that is that he has made this amazing man's private and public lives a seamless web. Interest in JP Morgan has also been heightened with the interest in IMM and the RMS Titanic. The Chernow book satisfies this curiosity
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable achievement
Review: Ron Chernow is arguably the best business historian writing today. His ambitious attempt to tell the story of the famed banking dynasty of J.P Morgan could not have succeeded more brilliantly. Here is a story not of just a bank. It is even more than simply the story of the financial services industry. It is, in fact, the story of the modern era, where everyone from Teddy Roosevelt and Benito Mussolini to Paul Volker and Ivan Boesky figure prominently. At the heart of this epic is a great paradox: the rise of modern global finance ushered in the demise of the banker. In J.P. Morgan's day, a small group of bankers held sway over giant corporations and the governments of global powers, serving as intimate advisors and self-regulating their industry with a strict but unwritten gentleman banker's code of conduct. The institutions that banks like Morgan created ultimately grew too powerful to control. Whereas once governments and companies were at the mercy of their bankers, today the reverse is true. Chernow tells the story of this transformation in exquisite detail and with admirable clarity. As interesting and well written as this book is, some may still find it to be a challenge to finish. For those who like to read a few pages before bed every night, you should expect the "House of Morgan" to be on the nightstand for several months. However, if you have the time and commitment, you'll likely find the experience of reading this book to be a worthwhile and fulfilling one.
Rating:
Summary: A remarkable achievement
Review: Ron Chernow is arguably the best business historian writing today. His ambitious attempt to tell the story of the famed banking dynasty of J.P Morgan could not have succeeded more brilliantly. Here is a story not of just a bank. It is even more than simply the story of the financial services industry. It is, in fact, the story of the modern era, where everyone from Teddy Roosevelt and Benito Mussolini to Paul Volker and Ivan Boesky figure prominently. At the heart of this epic is a great paradox: the rise of modern global finance ushered in the demise of the banker. In J.P. Morgan's day, a small group of bankers held sway over giant corporations and the governments of global powers, serving as intimate advisors and self-regulating their industry with a strict but unwritten gentleman banker's code of conduct. The institutions that banks like Morgan created ultimately grew too powerful to control. Whereas once governments and companies were at the mercy of their bankers, today the reverse is true. Chernow tells the story of this transformation in exquisite detail and with admirable clarity. As interesting and well written as this book is, some may still find it to be a challenge to finish. For those who like to read a few pages before bed every night, you should expect the "House of Morgan" to be on the nightstand for several months. However, if you have the time and commitment, you'll likely find the experience of reading this book to be a worthwhile and fulfilling one.
Rating:
Summary: Fixing the System after the Age of the Robber Barons
Review: Ron Chernow provides an excellent overview of the House of Morgan from the days of Junius to the present. Perhaps the most interesting part describes the efforts of J.P Morgan to salvage American companies from the ravages of the Robber Barons. The book provides a more balanced view of what the Morgan System accomplished. This book gave me a broad overview of turn of the century American business
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the best business history ever written
Review: Ron Chernow's "The House of Morgan" is both an engaging history of the Morgan banks and a brilliant account of the growth of global finance from Victorian times through the late 1980's. It's every bit as enjoyable as Chernow's "The Warburgs," but provides a better analysis than the Warburg book of key business and political developments of the 20th century. No one should be intimidated by this book's length or the complexity of its subject. Its pages are rich with lively portraits of the sometimes quirky men who ran the Morgan banks, the high and mighty of the world with whom they did business, and the world's many critics of such concentrated economic might. Pierpont and Jack Morgan and their successors at the top get the most detailed treatment, but figures as diverse as Brandeis, Mussolini, Lindbergh (the son-in-law of a top Morgan partner), Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt and Margaret Thatcher all play a part in the story, not to mention interesting but lesser-known figures like Ferdinand Pecora, Judge Harold Medina and central bankers from Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan. As a backdrop to the Morgan saga, this book includes accounts of the main events of 20th-century financial history, such as the Panic of 1907, the creation of the Federal Reserve system, the Crash of 1929 and the depression and bank failures that followed it, the New Dealers' attack on banks led by Pecora that resulted in the Glass-Steagall Act and the separation of commercial banking from investment banking, and the rise of hostile takeovers, Eurodollars, petrodollars, Latin American lending, junk bonds and the securitization of debt, all refreshingly written for laymen rather than experts. "The House of Morgan" has perhaps two overriding themes. The first is that as the years have passed, and the Morgan banks have faced increasing competition, the Morgan bankers' need to maintain their global preeminence has led them to take bigger and bigger risks. Some of these risks have resulted in large financial loss, but more often they have resulted in a loss of both public and customers' confidence, which has eroded the very preeminence that the banks seek to maintain. The second theme is that the top Morgan bankers have consistently underestimated the power of government to control what they do, and even make their lives miserable. From Pierpont on down, they have ignored government at their peril. It's almost a certainty that with the next big economic downturn, the Morgan banks will be attacked again, and I hope that Chernow will be on the scene to provide an account of it.
Rating:
Summary: Possibly the best business history ever written
Review: Ron Chernow's "The House of Morgan" is both an engaging history of the Morgan banks and a brilliant account of the growth of global finance from Victorian times through the late 1980's. It's every bit as enjoyable as Chernow's "The Warburgs," but provides a better analysis than the Warburg book of key business and political developments of the 20th century. No one should be intimidated by this book's length or the complexity of its subject. Its pages are rich with lively portraits of the sometimes quirky men who ran the Morgan banks, the high and mighty of the world with whom they did business, and the world's many critics of such concentrated economic might. Pierpont and Jack Morgan and their successors at the top get the most detailed treatment, but figures as diverse as Brandeis, Mussolini, Lindbergh (the son-in-law of a top Morgan partner), Bryan, Theodore Roosevelt and Margaret Thatcher all play a part in the story, not to mention interesting but lesser-known figures like Ferdinand Pecora, Judge Harold Medina and central bankers from Britain, Germany, Italy and Japan. As a backdrop to the Morgan saga, this book includes accounts of the main events of 20th-century financial history, such as the Panic of 1907, the creation of the Federal Reserve system, the Crash of 1929 and the depression and bank failures that followed it, the New Dealers' attack on banks led by Pecora that resulted in the Glass-Steagall Act and the separation of commercial banking from investment banking, and the rise of hostile takeovers, Eurodollars, petrodollars, Latin American lending, junk bonds and the securitization of debt, all refreshingly written for laymen rather than experts. "The House of Morgan" has perhaps two overriding themes. The first is that as the years have passed, and the Morgan banks have faced increasing competition, the Morgan bankers' need to maintain their global preeminence has led them to take bigger and bigger risks. Some of these risks have resulted in large financial loss, but more often they have resulted in a loss of both public and customers' confidence, which has eroded the very preeminence that the banks seek to maintain. The second theme is that the top Morgan bankers have consistently underestimated the power of government to control what they do, and even make their lives miserable. From Pierpont on down, they have ignored government at their peril. It's almost a certainty that with the next big economic downturn, the Morgan banks will be attacked again, and I hope that Chernow will be on the scene to provide an account of it.
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