| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.2

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| Book Review | The American Historical Review, 112.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Canada and the United States

Robert E. Wright and David J. Cowen. Financial Founding Fathers: The Men Who Made America Rich. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. 2006. Pp. vii, 240. Cloth $25.00.

The men chronicled in this collective biography can be described as individuals who sought to do good for their nation while making a buck or two along the way. Robert E. Wright and David J. Cowen provide biographies of nine men notable in the formation and early operation of the U.S. financial system: Alexander Hamilton, Tench Coxe, William Duer, Albert Gallatin, Thomas Willing, Robert Morris, Stephen Girard, Andrew Jackson, and Nicholas Biddle. The authors argue that because this system was critical to the eventual economic and political success of the nation, these individuals are as important in U.S. history as other more commonly recognized political figures. The central actors, men who are mentioned to varying degrees in popular college survey texts (some extensively, others not at all), are each characterized in biblical imagery. The descriptors include Creator; Angels, Risen and Fallen; Savior; Sinner; Saint; and even Judas. The authors note that these scriptural "motifs pay homage to the very old notion that there might be a higher power at work guiding the nation and also clarify each character's role" in the story (p. 7). Each chapter addresses one or two of the figures, beginning with a brief vignette of each man's early life, highlighting experiences relevant to the formation of his economic views and emotional makeup, and then describing his efforts on behalf of himself and the financial system. The text includes a timeline of events in the lives of the men and the system they created, a "concordance" of terms and people, classic portraits of the nine "financial founding fathers," and in-text "translations" of technical financial terms.

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