Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"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
Review
"[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
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
John Steele Gordon is a columnist for American Heritage and the author of A Thread Across the Ocean, The Great Game, Hamilton's Blessing, and The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street. His writing has appeared in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal. He lives in North Salem, New York.