An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance

I have followed finance for years and see the problems. It in total is a disaster waiting to happen. However, this book is so foundational in nature it should be read by all people or pale who seek to be students of money, and read FIRST !!!

The House of Morgan has been an enjoyable read thus far. Mr. Chernow gives able detail about the monarchs of the Morgan family without glossing over all the other ever so important partners, that helped shape the Morgan Dynasty.

I'm 300 pages in and haven't found a dull point yet. I highly recommend this to anyone that enjoys American History, World History, and American Finances; and are all intertwined with the house of Morgan!

Ron Chernow is truly awe-inspiring. This is one of several, incredibly complete biographies that he has written.

At 700 plus pages this is an incredibly long book. Unfortunately it is an uneven read. I became progressively less interested in the book as I went along; however, it was worth the effort to complete.

The first section, which he calls the Baronial Era in banking, is fascinating, and for me it was a page-turner. The Morgan banking house actually began as the George Peabody bank in England, and Junius Morgan was brought over from the US to be his successor. Junius Morgan took the bank to a level far beyond where Peabody had, and then his son JP Morgan Sr. took over. JP Morgan Sr (Pierpont) is the name most associated with Morgan banking, and he was an enormously powerful and colorful character. This was the infamous age of the "Robber Barons" the rise of American railroads, big steel, and the oil industry. Pierpont was at the center of it, commanding industry while collecting art, building yachts and cavorting with women. It makes a great story.

Pierpont was succeeded by his son JP Morgan Jr(Jack) who headed the bank during what Chernow called the "Diplomatic Era". The book became less interesting. Jack was nowhere near as colorful as his father, and his reign over the bank nowhere near as autocratic. Several other bankers, among them Dwight Morrow (father of Anne Morrow Lindbergh) were major players at the bank. The bank played a huge role on the international stage in this era, and while it had strong ties to England (and its sister bank Morgan Grenfall) it also helped finance the rise of the Nazis, Mussolini and the nationalists in Japan. This was also the period of the roaring twenties and the depression. The story told in the book is not quite as gripping because it doesn't hinge on a single character, but the events impacted and the role played by the bank were enough to keep me reading with interest and occassionally complete absorption.

The third era covered was the "Casino Era". As a result of the Glass Steagle Act, the bank split into Morgan Guarantee and Morgan Stanley. This section of the book also tells about the demise of Morgan Grenfall in England. This is essentially the modern era of banking where the investment bankers at Morgan Stanley and Morgan Grenfall became involved in takeover battles and modern securities. Morgan Guarantee became a fairly staid, and boring, commercial bank. This section of the book had the least interesting characters. I found it to be pretty dry. I have read several books about the various takeover battles, so this account, which was more of a survey, lacked the blood and drama of other accounts I have read.

Finally, from the perspective of 2005, the last section of the book, covering the most recent time period, feels a bit dated. I know more about what happened to both Morgan Guarantee and Morgan Stanley than Chernow knew when he wrote the book, so the very last few chapters felt out of date.

Overall it was also interesting to see the interaction between the history of the bank, and social history. The bank originally was very "white shoe", male and protestant. It hired its first Jewish banker in 1963. Pierpont and Jack were quite anti-Semitic. Yet, within its confines, the bank was also a meritocracy and afforded many of its employees entree into the upper classes.

Although, it can be a bit of a slog at times, if you are interested in the world of banking and finance, or the history of the 19th and 20th century, this is an excellent book.

Not on the same level as his biography of Alexander Hamilton, but a detailed account of the Morgan dynasty and its effect on US and global finance and economic history. Very readable,informative and entertaining.

Not on the same level as his biography of Alexander Hamilton, but a detailed account of the Morgan dynasty and its effect on US and global finance and economic history. Very readable,informative and entertaining.

Its a long book with exceptional detail covering about 100 + years of the Morgans down the line. We knew many of the people mentioed so the detail was of interest. However, for the casual reader it could be more detail than was helpful.

Every high school student in this country should have to read this book when studying US History. It provides the economic detail of how the US was financed, including the how and why of the rich getting richer and the poor getting trampled. The good old boys club tactics of wealth control and class protection persist until this very day. The White House and Wall Street enjoy entirely too much money while 99% of us scratch out a meager existence, which can be toppled by sickness or weather related catastrophe and nobody cares. Monopolies persist and the everyday person has no opportunity to change the socio-economic class they are born into except by chance or extraordinary talent. There is no such thing as the American Dream it is just an illusion- our economy is disgraceful. One only has to look south to Australia where the people enjoy a much healthier society than we will ever realize in the US. This book draws the clear cut map between Wall Street and the White House leaving Main Street to whither and die - the only true equalizer being death, the 1% still have the same life span.

When trying to understand how the business world works, why the laws and regulations it runs by were put in place, and HOW those rules and regulations affected the fate of companies and the ways of doing business, you need background and a clear picture how things changed through time.

House of Morgan gives a clear perspective of a big chunk of time from the perspective of one company (and it's successors) and illuminates many subjects which I previously found murky.

Book starts out great. Goes through all the history of Junius and J.P. However, it's extremely thin on anything other than just the Morgan bank. The author says that JP Morgan started the Federal Reserve...but then he just leaves it at that. He doesn't talk anything about who else was involved, letting you believe that the House of Morgan owned a 100% of the Fed.

Same thing goes through the whole book. Morgan this, Morgan that. Never any information about anybody else. It starts off quickly mentioning the Rotschilds and the Barings, and how "an $800,000 loan would make the Morgans locked for life to the Rotschilds". But never any more information about that. After the first few pages in the book, the Rotschilds are completely left out of the book.

It feels like the author is trying to make the Morgans seem larger than what they were, by not talking about their competitors. Ultimatily, it gives a skewed view on reality.

Book starts out great. Goes through all the history of Junius and J.P. However, it's extremely thin on anything other than just the Morgan bank. The author says that JP Morgan started the Federal Reserve...but then he just leaves it at that. He doesn't talk anything about who else was involved, letting you believe that the House of Morgan owned a 100% of the Fed.

Same thing goes through the whole book. Morgan this, Morgan that. Never any information about anybody else. It starts off quickly mentioning the Rotschilds and the Barings, and how "an $800,000 loan would make the Morgans locked for life to the Rotschilds". But never any more information about that. After the first few pages in the book, the Rotschilds are completely left out of the book.

It feels like the author is trying to make the Morgans seem larger than what they were, by not talking about their competitors. Ultimatily, it gives a skewed view on reality.

Book was very interesting but actually for my limited knowledge on the history of Morgan, I found it was too complicated for me, but non the less, I do highly recommend for history buffs with a much greater understanding of all the ins and outs of our financial history.

Frankly I was disappointed with the book. It is good popular history but not really serious history. For example, the author talks about how bad the 1987 stock market crash was but fails to mention that stocks end the year higher than they had begun. He mentions thousands of boards the various characters served on but not once in the 700 pages are we inside a board room. On reviewer talks about how he lavishes some areas with detail and then ignores others. I agree. I found myself wanting to know more many times. The mini-biographies throughout the book seem like the author simply is looking at an old photograph and sheds little else on the subject. I did make it through the book but found myself wanting more information.

I purchased this book from the store after reading the many glowing reviews and the few negative ones. My objective was to learn how J.P.Morgan and his descendents garnered so much power. Throughout the read I was thinking about my reaction. Early on and fairly significantly, Ron Chernow appears to be an uber-semite. First it's distracting, then annoying, then discrediting. This turned out to be a good thing for me for as I read anecdote after anecdote I Googled to get the real story (what a wonderful resource is the internet).

As a source of leads it was quite valuable in that regard. As a result of these searches I returned again and again feeling betrayed by the author. I felt like I was reading a pretty paint job by a publicist rather than a serious treatment of the real history. In the end, perusing the list of footnotes and sources I was left asking, how, with this access to such a treasure trove of facts did Chernow lose the beef?

And in answer to my question "how did J.P.Morgan and his descendents garner so much power"? The answer was quite simple ... contacts starting with George Peabody. After this study it seems pretty remarkable that the Morgans, with their limited personal capabilities, didn't blow the opportunities that were laid at their feet. This was evidently Chernow's first book contract. I presume since this writing he has gotten better.

The author doesn't deserve this rating but his publisher didn't even try with this one. The book is rife with misplaced punctuation and misspelled words. The handling of names would be comical if it weren't so common. Junius Morgan becomes "funius Morgan." James J. Hill becomes "fames J. Hill." If you're giving away the book for free, I have no complaints. But if you're charging for it, why can't you hire a copy editor?

I too wish for an update, especially considering the financial crisis most recently, and how did the House of Morgan operate during that time? I never knew what a private banker was until I read this book. A very fascinating history of power and banking. That the House of Morgan arranged for the transfer of funds for the Panama Canal purchase is something few people would even know. And this is the level of detail one will find in the book. If one reads the history of Presidents, it is a continual boom and bust economic cycle that makes most of them, in the 19th Century, a one term President. The boom and bust cycle was something that was not understood, and besides, most Presidents would not get involved, beyond the issue of silver versus gold, as they did not see the Constitution allowing for any government intervention. During the times of monstrous fortunes made by the monopolies, places like the House of Morgan had their hands out to help handle the money.

This book is heavy reading, and filled with information on how the rich handled their money, and how private banks stepped in to sometimes save countries, as they had the money. They rescued the U.S. government more then once.

After Hamilton and Grant I decided to give this book a chance. Not really glad that I did.
Whereby much of the detail in the Hamilton and Grant books I found edifying, less so with this book. For example. knowing more about US Grant's John Rawlins (whom I had heard about) was helpful; Pierpont's and Jack's associates, not nearly as interesting. Also, the details of syndicating bond deals for China and France and England over 100 years ago was just boring. And, I worked in investment banking for 8 years! I thought the general topic would be more interesting to me than it proved to be. I think you've really got to be fanatical about JPM and its legacy to really enjoy this book.