| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.4

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.4 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

The Speculation Economy: How Finance Triumphed over Industry. By Lawrence E. Mitchell. (San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler, 2007. xiv, 395 pp. $35.00, ISBN 978-1-57675-400-9.)

"The speculation economy," writes the busi ness law professor Lawrence E. Mitchell, "is one in which business management focused on production is replaced with business management focused on stock price" (p. x). With flair, passion, and verve Mitchell describes how during the great merger movement of 1897–1903 "waves of watered stock" (p. 3) summoned forth the "giant modern corporation" (p. 2), which then gave birth to the "modern stock market" (ibid.) and transferred control of the economy to plutocrats and speculators. If Mitchell is correct, never have so many been so thoroughly duped for so long. This serious study by a serious scholar is, however, seriously flawed. Instead of testing his hypotheses, Mitchell narrates and, ultimately, bashes and hyperbolizes in a vain attempt to inculcate.

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