An empire of wealth : the epic history of American economic power / John Steele Gordon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gordon, John Steele.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States--Economic conditions.

United States.

Economic conditions.

Physical Description:

xviii, 460 pages ; 24 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : HarperCollins, [2004]

Summary:

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.

Contents:

Introduction: The Pursuit of Happiness xiii

Part I A Vast and Roaring Wilderness

Chapter 1 The Land, the People, and the Law 3

Chapter 2 In the Name of God and Profit 21

Chapter 3 The Atlantic Empire 37

Part II A Country that Could Make Itself as it Pleased

Transition: The American Revolution 59

Chapter 4 The Hamiltonian Creation 68

Chapter 5 A Terrible Synergy 82

Chapter 6 Labor Improbus Omnia Vincit 98

Chapter 7 The Jeffersonian Destruction 113

Chapter 8 New Jersey Must Be Free! 132

Chapter 9 Chaining the Lightning of Heaven 153

Chapter 10 Whales, Wood, Ice, and Gold 167

Part III The Emerging Colossus

Transition: The Civil War 191

Chapter 11 Capitalism Red in Tooth and Claw 205

Chapter 12 Doing Business with Glass Pockets 223

Chapter 13 Was There Ever Such a Business! 240

Chapter 14 A Cross of Gold 264

Part IV The American Century Begins

Transition: The First World War 285

Chapter 15 Getting Prices Down to the Buying Power 295

Chapter 16 Fear Itself 317

Chapter 17 Converting Retreat into Advance 332

Part V A New Economic Revolution

Transition: The Second World War 349

Chapter 18 The Great Postwar Boom 363

Chapter 19 The Crisis of the New Deal Order 382

Chapter 20 A New Economy, a New World, a New War 402.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [433]-441) and index.

ISBN:

0060093625

OCLC:

56668529