The book concentrates on the struggle, as the author puts it, between capitalism and democracy in the USA, chiefly during the XIXth century. It is akin to banking vs currency schools in the same period England, but the author, being a historian doesn’t try to aggreagate as see it as a part of economic history, more like a pieces of biographies of people, who created this history – Hamilton, Jackson, Biddle, Jefferson, JP Morgan, Gould, Cook… in short a series of interesting anecdotes linked by a larger theme of struggle between the wealthiest Americans and the broad masses ( )

Shines a clear light on the people behind the war between capitalism and the populists. Made me appreciate Hamilton. ( )

H.W. Brands: historian and professor at the University of Texas at Austin
Pros: good history on the early struggles of dollar and monetary market
Cons: no coverage of the period after WW II; simplistic view on many events; lack of understanding of the more sinister morph of the monetary/currency market in the last 20-30 years and its profound impact on world economy ( )

The Money Men
by H. W. Brands
Alexander Hamilton was an illegitimage child. He founded the first national bank and was the first Secretary of The Treasury. He worked under George Washington. He advocated strong federal government. He championed the idea of a central bank. He died young in a dual.
Nicholas Biddle participated in the purchase of Louisiana from France. He became president of the Second Bank of The United States in 1822. He fought a bitter fight with President Andrew Jackson over the bank. Jackson opposed re-chartering the bank of the United States; he thought it was bad for democracy to be at the mercy of capital. Biddle retaliated by tighning the supply of credit. An economic recession ensued in 1819. Bibble was blamed for the crisis. Andrew Jackson opposed all banks that were not backed 100% by gold or silver.
Jay Cook (August 10, 1821-February 8, 1905) was a young American financier. He was also know as the financier of the Civil War. He helped the secretary of the treasury sell millions of war bonds. He advertise the bond to all Americans.

Jay Gould was an American financier and rail road developer. He took control of the Erie Railroad Company and tried to divert fund. Fought against Cornelius Vanderbilt over the control of the company. Gould with the help of his friends James Fisk, and Daniel Drew tried to corner the gold market, resulting in the panic of Black Friday in September 1869. The plot eventually failed when President Ulysses Grant order the federal government to sell its gold. ( )