J P Morgan

The Instant New York Times Bestseller! A Good Morning America* Book Club Pick! Named a Best Book of the Year by NPR! Named a Notable Book of the Year by the Washington Post! “Historical fiction at its best!”* A remarkable novel about J. P. Morgan’s personal librarian, Belle da Costa Greene, the Black American woman who was forced to hide her true identity and pass as white in order to leave a lasting legacy that enriched our nation, from New York Times bestselling authors Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray. In her twenties, Belle da Costa Greene is hired by J. P. Morgan to curate a collection of rare manuscripts, books, and artwork for his newly built Pierpont Morgan Library. Belle becomes a fixture in New York City society and one of the most powerful people in the art and book world, known for her impeccable taste and shrewd negotiating for critical works as she helps create a world-class collection. But Belle has a secret, one she must protect at all costs. She was born not Belle da Costa Greene but Belle Marion Greener. She is the daughter of Richard Greener, the first Black graduate of Harvard and a well-known advocate for equality. Belle’s complexion isn’t dark because of her alleged Portuguese heritage that lets her pass as white—her complexion is dark because she is African American. The Personal Librarian tells the story of an extraordinary woman, famous for her intellect, style, and wit, and shares the lengths she must go to—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.

The National Book Award–winning history of American finance by the renowned biographer and author of Hamilton: “A tour de force” (New York Times Book Review). The House of Morgan is a panoramic story of four generations in the powerful Morgan family and their secretive firms that would transform the modern financial world. Tracing the trajectory of J. P. Morgan’s empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the financial crisis of 1987, acclaimed author Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the family’s private saga and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved—a world that included Charles Lindbergh, Henry Ford, Franklin Roosevelt, Nancy Astor, and Winston Churchill. A masterpiece of financial history—it was awarded the 1990 National Book Award for Nonfiction and selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 Best Nonfiction Books of the Twentieth Century—The House of Morgan is a compelling account of a remarkable institution and the men who ran it. It is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the money and power behind the major historical events of the last 150 years.

Tall and stiff, J. P. Morgan looked the part of an emperor. And he acted like one, too, making two United States presidents meet his terms to save the country from financial panic. His great power and princely style of life made him a living symbol of the might of money. Here, in this essay by the respected historian Bernard A. Weisberger, is his remarkable story.

J.P. Morgan is more than just the name on one of the largest banks in America. He altered the course of American finance and was the chief financier for the strategic interests of the titans of the day, like Rockefeller. He financed new and ingenious technologies developed by Thomas Edison and was a visionary who saw the potential in Nikola Tesla.

Examines how J.P. Morgan, then the world's leading bank, responded to the greatest crisis in the history of financial capitalism.

There is no arguing J.P. Morgan’s monumental influence. As both the guardian of America’s financial sturdiness and a well-appointed exploiter of the system’s regulatory shortcomings, Morgan’s actions raised questions that still resonate: What does it mean for Wall Street to be out of control? How best can government and business collaborate when it comes to buttressing a fragile economy? Should financial interests be allowed to profit from government bailouts? By delving into Morgan’s attitudes and way of thinking, we can begin to understand the motivations and limitations of modern-day financial giants like Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, and even Warren Buffett. These are lessons that none of us can afford to ignore. It would be a mistake to think of John Pierpont Morgan as the Ben Bernanke of his day. In truth, Morgan was more powerful than any Federal Reserve chairman, serving as a one-man central bank long before that institution’s birth in 1913. And although the financier died that year at age 75, he was indirectly responsible for the Fed’s creation. J.P. Morgan’s display of so much clout in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century stoked the nation’s inherent fear of concentrated wealth. It was a mixture of that fear and the recognition that the only man suitable for the role of central banker had lately departed this earth that ultimately led to the establishment of the Federal Reserve System. Henceforth, the government, not Morgan, would regulate the supply of money and credit, ensure the safety and soundness of the system, and step in to defuse financial panics. New Word City, publishers of digital originals, contributes 10 percent of its profits to literacy causes.

Originally published in 2002, this is the second of three volumes in a history of finance in America. This volume starts with the investment bankers who dominated finance at the beginning of the twentieth century. It then describes the Panic of 1907 and the resulting creation of the Federal Reserve Board (the 'Fed'). The volume then traces finance through World War I, and it examines the events that led to the stock market crash of 1929 and the Great Depression. From there it reviews the rebirth of finance after World War II and the growth of the institutional investor.

The concept was simple, to link American railroads and global dominance of the seas with a railroad line through China and Russia, enter the back door of Europe, and create new royalty: the Transportation Kings. Vanderbilt, Hill, Morgan, and Harriman all pursued the grand dream. They were America’s industrial princes, poised for their greatest accomplishments, only to find that they had not considered the gauntlet awaiting them in the courts of kings and Kaisers, parliaments and congress. They awoke John Bull and helped precipitate revolution in China. They brought about the building of Lusitania and, in reaction, they owned and built the Titanic. We all know how the disaster story ends; this is how the story came about.