An Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic PowerThroughout 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. |
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Review: Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power
User Review - Rebecca Cambridge - GoodreadsFirst history book I finished. Had a theme throughout. Read full review
Review: Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power
User Review - Robert Byrd - GoodreadsA compelling narrative of the many innovations and governmental policies that have made America's economy what it is today. It has earned a place on my favorites shelf. Read full review
Contents
1 | |
21 | |
37 | |
PART II | 57 |
The Hamiltonian Creation | 68 |
A Terrible Synergy | 82 |
Labor Improbus Omnia Vincit | 98 |
The Jeffersonian Destruction | 113 |
Doing Business with Glass Pockets | 223 |
Was There Ever Such a Business | 240 |
A Cross of Gold | 264 |
PART IV | 279 |
The First World War | 285 |
Getting Prices Down to the Buying Power | 295 |
Fear Itself | 317 |
Converting Retreat into Advance | 332 |
New Jersey Must Be Free | 132 |
Chaining the Lightning of Heaven | 153 |
Whales Wood Ice and Gold | 167 |
PART III | 189 |
Capitalism Red in Tooth and Claw | 205 |
PART v | 347 |
The Great Postwar Boom | 363 |
The Crisis of the New Deal Order | 382 |
A New Economy a New World a New War | 402 |