The Money Men

Capitalism, Democracy, and the Hundred Years' War over the American Dollar

By: H. W. Brands

Narrated by: Lloyd James

Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

A best-selling historian's gripping account of the powerful men who controlled America's financial destiny.

From the first days of the United States, a battle raged over money. On one side were the democrats, who wanted cheap money and feared the concentration of financial interests in the hands of a few. On the other were the capitalists who sought the soundness of a national bank and the profits that came with it.

In telling this exciting story, H. W. Brands focuses on five "Money Men": Alexander Hamilton, who championed a national bank; Nicholas Biddle, whose run-in with Andrew Jackson led to the bank's demise; Jay Cooke, who financed the Union in the Civil War; Jay Gould, who tried to corner the gold market; and J. P. Morgan, whose position was so commanding that he bailed out the U.S. Treasury.

The Money Men is a riveting narrative, a revealing history of the men who fought over the lifeblood of American commerce and power.

©2006 H. W. Brands (P)2006 Tantor Media, Inc.

Fair and entertaining

The book is a fantastic description of the evolution of financial history in the US

Interesting, if short

I am very interested in political and economic history, so when I saw this book, I was very interested.

The author does a very good job of explaining the history of the push and pull between the two groups that he calls "the capitalists" (those in the finance business) and "the democrats" (those who do not have as much money).

There is a lot to cover and he does a really good job of covering almost 100 years of financial history in under six hours.

I found the first chapter, about Hamilton and Jefferson, a bit short and I really did not learn much from that chapter, but that might be because I am fairly well versed in that part of US history.

I found the rest really, really interesting. The author does a nice job of explaining fairly complicated financial concepts (tight vs. loose money, the gold standard vs. fiat currency) in a very accessible way.

If you are an economics geek like me, you will not be dissappointed.

Not clear what this book is really about

This book describes a handful of men in the 18th and 19th century who had some influence on American monetary policy. It is neither adequate from a biographical standpoint or from the standpoint of economic history. The scope is vast; a short book like this can't hope to cover two centuries of fiscal policy, but I'm not sure what Alexander Hamilton, Jay Cook, Jay Gould and JP Morgan have in common other than that they all did business in America. I'm not at all certain these were the 5 most significant people in determining 19th century fiscal policy.

Books like this are difficult listens because there is no coherent thread to follow. It reads like several shorter pieces the author strung together.