Bernard Baruch

This biography of Bernard Baruch considered to be renowned as the definitive story about the notorious financial wizard and presidential advisor. Baruch's political policies are discussed briefly, and James Grant includes a detailed account of Baruch's trading and investment gains and losses.

Baruch: My Own Story is the memoirs of Bernard M. Baruch, a man whose life spanned the late nineteenth century and over half of the twentieth century. Given the time period, he is a man who has seen much having met seven presidents, witnessing two wars and working on Wall Street for a time. In these memoirs, Baruch has tried to set forth the philosophy through which he had sought to harmonize a readiness to risk something new with precautions against repeating the errors of the past.

Bernard Baruch was a self-made millionaire, legendary stock trader, and venture investor. For most of the first half of the 20th century, he epitomized the "good side" of Wall Street in the public mind. Celebrated as "Adviser to Presidents" and "The Park Bench Statesman," he also became known as "The Man Who Sold out before the Crash." James Grant's much praised biography draws on a wealth of previously untapped material.

Belle W. Baruch (1899–1964) could outride, outshoot, outhunt, and outsail most of the young men of her elite social circle—abilities that distanced her from other debutantes of 1917. Unapologetic for her athleticism and interests in traditionally masculine pursuits, Baruch towered above male and female counterparts in height and daring. While she is known today for the wildlife conservation and biological research center on the South Carolina coast that bears her family name, Belle's story is a rich narrative about one nonconformist's ties to the land. In Baroness of Hobcaw, Mary E. Miller provides a provocative portrait of this unorthodox woman who gave a gift of monumental importance to the scientific community. Belle's father, Bernard M. Baruch, the so-called Wolf of Wall Street, held sway over the financial and diplomatic world of the early twentieth century and served as an adviser to seven U.S. presidents. In 1905 he bought Hobcaw Barony, a sprawling seaside retreat where he entertained the likes of Churchill and FDR. Belle's daily life at Hobcaw reflects the world of wealthy northerners, including the Vanderbilts and Luces, who bought tracts of southern acreage. Miller details Belle's exploits—fox hunting at Hobcaw, show jumping at Deauville, flying her own plane, traveling with Edith Bolling Wilson, and patrolling the South Carolina beach for spies during World War II. Belle's story also reveals her efforts to win her mother's approval and her father's attention, as well as her unraveling relationships with friends, family, employees, and lovers—both male and female. Miller describes Belle's final success in saving Hobcaw from development as the overarching triumph of a tempestuous life.

By anyone's standards Bernard M. Baruch was a giant among Americans of this century. Although he was never elected to public office, his influence on American public policy was staggering. A Jew who amassed a fortune from Wall Street speculation in raw materials, Baruch became one of the most powerful, interesting, and enigmatic personalities in Washington politics. The Speculator: Bernard M. Baruch in Washington, 1917-1965 is the first complete study of Baruch. President Wilson appointed him chairman of the War Industries Board in 1918 and asked for his economic advice at the Paris Peace Conference. Thereafter, Baruch adopted the roles of background political strategist and of publicist on national issues such as price stabilization. He became extraordinarily influential during the 1920s, the New Deal, and World War II. By the end of Franklin D. Roosevelt's presidency, Baruch's fame as a presidential advisor and his network of friends had made him one of the most respected and feared men in Washington. Jordan A. Schwarz's biography not only reinterprets Baruch but also illuminates the major figures and events of his time. Through Baruch's eyes we gain an enhanced understanding of Woodrow Wilson, Herbert Hoover, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower, and other prominent Americans. Schwarz's analysis offers us insights into the persistence of Wilsonian liberalism in public policy, the drive for corporatist planning during the New Deal, the organization of war mobilization, the development of the Baruch Plan for control of atomic energy during the cold war, and the failure of anti-inflation efforts during the 1940s and 1950s. Schwarz's definitive study is the result of extensive research in Baruch's large manuscript collection and in dozens of other library collections throughout the country, including those at the Hoover, Truman, and Roosevelt libraries.

From Benjamin Franklin to Ragged Dick to Jack Kelly, hero of the Disney musical Newsies, newsboys have long intrigued Americans as symbols of struggle and achievement. But what do we really know about the children who hawked and delivered newspapers in American cities and towns? Who were they? What was their life like? And how important was their work to the development of a free press, the survival of poor families, and the shaping of their own attitudes, values and beliefs? Crying the News: A History of America's Newsboys offers an epic retelling of the American experience from the perspective of its most unshushable creation. It is the first book to place newsboys at the center of American history, analyzing their inseparable role as economic actors and cultural symbols in the creation of print capitalism, popular democracy, and national character. DiGirolamo's sweeping narrative traces the shifting fortunes of these "little merchants" over a century of war and peace, prosperity and depression, exploitation and reform, chronicling their exploits in every region of the country, as well as on the railroads that linked them. While the book focuses mainly on boys in the trade, it also examines the experience of girls and grown-ups, the elderly and disabled, blacks and whites, immigrants and natives. Based on a wealth of primary sources, Crying the News uncovers the existence of scores of newsboy strikes and protests. The book reveals the central role of newsboys in the development of corporate welfare schemes, scientific management practices, and employee liability laws. It argues that the newspaper industry exerted a formative yet overlooked influence on working-class youth that is essential to our understanding of American childhood, labor, journalism, and capitalism.

This is a new release of the original 1953 edition.