Jean Strouse, AVOID

This fat, prolix book suffers from the weight it carries. It is the Life And Times of JP Morgan, meaning that the world JP Morgan knew and grew up into should be told in this volume.

Immediately, the times of JP Morgan are misrepresented and erroneous by relying on cliches. Cliche #1 is Alexander Hamilton prepared to use government spending to support industry. Jefferson and Andrew Jackson disliked government and government spending and tried not to do that. Note the national debt under Jackson nearly disappeared, but canals and roads were built. Observe also that the United States had more miles of railroad track than Europe by 1855.

Relying on Hamilton/Jefferson-Jackson distinctions when writing about the 1850s misses issues, points and the whole political and social situation. This biographer is a complete novice about writing history. Either that or the times of JP Morgan, indeed, allowed him to know nothing of issues giving rise to the American Civil War. That is a too secluded life for America’s foremost banker.