Every Man A Speculator - A History Of Wall Street In American Life (2005) - [Qwerty80]

Americans have experienced a love-hate relationship with Wall Street for two hundred years. Long an object of suspicion, fear, and even revulsion, the Street eventually came to be seen as an alluring pathway to wealth and freedom. Steve Fraser tells the story of this remarkable transformation in a brilliant, masterfully written narrative filled with colorful tales of confidence men and aristocrats, Napoleonic financiers and reckless adventurers, master builders and roguish destroyers. Penetrating and engrossing, this is an extraordinary work of history that illuminates the values and the character of our nation.
The Washington Post
The result is an illuminating tour of how the United States has perceived its financial center over two centuries through the eyes of its political leaders, novelists, moviemakers, preachers, cartoonists, ordinary citizens and a host of others. This exercise "is both a probe into the American character and an inquiry into the way the character of America has changed," Fraser writes. In the process of telling this sprawling tale, he sometimes goes on too long, and his attempt to draw sweeping conclusions about America's changed character is strained. But his prose is elegant, and his eye for historical detail is keen, carrying the reader through the many sagas that he entertainingly recounts.