An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power

Throughout time, from ancient Rome to modern Britain, the great empires built and maintained their dominion through force of arms and political power over alien peoples. In this illuminating work of history, John Steele Gordon tells the extraordinary story of how the United States, a global power without precedent, became the first country to dominate the world through the creation of wealth.

The American economy is by far the world's largest, but it is also the most dynamic and innovative. The nation used its English political inheritance, as well as its diverse, ambitious population and seemingly bottomless imagination, to create an unrivaled economy capable of developing more wealth for more and more people as it grows.

But America has also been extremely lucky. Far from a guaranteed success, our resilient economy continually suffered through adversity and catastrophes. It survived a profound recession after the Revolution, an unwise decision by Andrew Jackson that left the country without a central bank for nearly eighty years, and the disastrous Great Depression of the 1930s, which threatened to destroy the Republic itself. Having weathered those trials, the economy became vital enough to Americanize the world in recent decades. Virtually every major development in technology in the twentieth century originated in the United States, and as the products of those technologies traveled around the globe, the result was a subtle, peaceful, and pervasive spread of American culture and perspective.

An Empire of Wealth is a stirring epic that mirrors the remarkable trajectory of America's history. Featuring a cast of entrepreneurial icons that includes John D. Rockefeller,Henry Ford, and Bill Gates, this is a story full of euphoria and disaster, daring and timidity, great men and utter fools. From the Revolution to the Great Depression to the Internet era and the turn of the millennium, John Steele Gordon captures as never before the true source of our nation's global influence.

"The word 'epic' in the subtitle is a tip-off that instead of a critical history of the American economy, this book is a celebration of it. Nothing wrong with that, especially when the tale's told breezily and accurately. In fact, Gordon (The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street) notes the many stumbles and the frequent foolishness and corruption that attended the nation's rise as an economic powerhouse. The larger story of success is, in fact, an extraordinary one. The trouble is that the American economy, like every other, bends much out of shape. It has always provided opportunity but always with too much inequality. A full history of the American economy would take this into consideration — in the past as well as the present, and Gordon's doesn't. Also, his book sometimes wanders off into irrelevant subjects, like the origins of the computer, but his grasp of the larger picture is sure and his prose bright. His chapter on Northern and Southern Civil War finances is a model of its kind. Those seeking an introduction to the general history of American economic power will find few better places to start, as long as they keep in mind that the nation's economy is not perfect, its benefits not unalloyed and its future domination of other economic powerhouses by no means assured. Agent, Katinka Matson. " Publishers Weekly (Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Solid raw material with plenty of value added. Just the thing for economics wonks, then, but lively enough to make for good airplane reading." Kirkus Reviews

"[A]n engrossing and comprehensive survey of U.S. economic activity from Colonial times through the fall of communism and the S&L crisis....[A] remarkably detailed and interesting book." Library Journal

For Gordon (a columnist for American Heritage), the secret behind American global power lies not in arms or politics, but in its economic power. Writing for a popular audience, he presents a narrative of the growth of that power from the arrival of the first English colonists to the end of the 1990s. His story of American agriculture, the growth of industry, changes in the banking system, and various economic scandals becomes, in the end, a celebratory history of the American economy.
Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

In a stirring narrative that mirrors the remarkable trajectory of America's history up to the Internet era and beyond, Gordon captures as never before the true source of the nation's global triumph.