The house of Morgan - Ron Chernow

A saga of the Anglo-American banking dynasty that superseded the Barings and the Rothschilds to become the dominant financial empire of the 20th century. It covers 150 years, tracing the Morgan empire from Dickensian beginnings in Victorian London to the summit of world finance. An account of an institution and the men who ran it, this book is a look at the real power - the money - behind the historical events, the eminent statesmen and the industrial empires that have transformed the world in the last century and a half.;Based on unprecedented access to Morgan records and over 100 interviews, it lays bare the secrets of the world's most mysterious financial firms. As England's Wall Street agent, the Morgan bank was privy to its most sensitive financial dealings. It financed the Allies in World War I and purchased their munitions. It restored England to the gold standard in 1925 and was blamed for the 1931 "banker's ramp" that toppled Ramsay Macdonald's government. In World War II, it insured Lend-Lease aid to Britain by arranging the sale of a Courtaulds subsidiary. It even lobbied Washington to join the abortive invasion in the 1950s.