Morgan, American Financier
"In this engrossing story—an extraordinary accomplishment, filled with the vitality of the biographer and the fascination of her subject—Morgan has finally met his match." —Michael Holroyd
"Strouse is in full command of Pierpont Morgan's personal life, his financial operations, his collecting, and his benefactions, and presents a rich, vivid picture of the background against which they took place.... She has written a magnificent biography, which illuminates her subject and his world. —Robert Skidelsky, The New York Review of Books
Named one of the "Five Best Books on American Moguls" and "Five Best Books on Financial Dynasties" by the Wall Street Journal.
"The Morgan that Jean Strouse has brought to life in her masterful, long-awaited biography is deeply human, the most intricate and integrated portrait we have yet had.... Her storytelling [has] the richness and penetration of a novel." —David Michaelis, New York Observer
History has remembered J. Pierpont Morgan as a complex and contradictory figure, part robber baron and part patron saint. Now this magisterial biography, based extensively on new material, draws a definitive, full-scale portrait of Morgan's tumultuous life both in and out of the public eye.Morgan earned his reputation as "the Napoleon of Wall Street" by reorganizing the nation's railroads and creating some of its greatest industrial trusts, including General Electric and U.S. Steel. At a time when the United States had no Federal Reserve System, he appointed himself a one-man central bank. He had two wives, three yachts, four children, six houses, mistresses, and one of the finest art collections in America. In this extraordinary book, award-winning biographer Jean Strouse vividly portrays the financial colossus, the avid patron of the arts, and the entirely human character behind all the myths.
Brilliantly crafted, epic in scope, Morgan reveals a man we have never seen before, offering new insights on the culture, political struggles, and social conflicts of America's Gilded Age.