Capital City: New York City and the Men Behind America's Rise to Economic Dominance, 1860-1900

by Thomas Kessner

At the beginning of the nineteenth century, New York City was an undistinguished town, competing with Philadelphia and Boston to be America's dominant port city. Just two generations later, it had built itself into the country's powerhouse center of trade and finance, rivaled only by London as financial capital of the world. In Capital City, Thomas Kessner tells the story of this remarkable transformation.
With the advantages of its famous harbor and the opening of the Erie Canal in 1825, New York became the chief commercial center for the growing nation. As the shipping industry prospered, capital accumulated, and a growing banking center emerged, New York went on to finance the Union cause during the Civil War, open the West to development, and consolidate the national railroad system. The city's energy and opportunity attracted ambitious men from all over the country whose names became synonymous with big business: Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan. New York's banks set the interest rates for the nation, its stock exchange fixed the price of securities, its investors transformed American business from family-owned enterprises into modern corporations, and its growing political clout catapulted public figures, such as Samuel Tilden and Teddy Roosevelt, onto the national stage.
Combining political and urban history with a colorful cast of characters, Capital City chronicles how Gotham's Gilded Age reshaped the metropolis and the nation as it molded our present-day economy.

Genres: History, American History, Nonfiction, Finance

416 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2003

About the author

Thomas Kessner is Distinguished Professor at City University of New York.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book appeals to me because of its New York link (and I got it at a used book store), but it is a good look at how the capitalist system under which we live got a real boost. It was that idea that rather than invest in a company, you could invest in part of a company...by buying shares of stock. What a great idea! Our world would not exist without that concept, however things went haywire fairly early. Jay Gould figured out how to cheat the system...people figured out how to avoid tax on their earnings.

Anyone interested in American History will enjoy this very readable book to see how our economic rise started not just from exports, but from ways in which we created what is now Wall Street.

[Leif Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

As part of my prep work for going to the east coast in April, I decided to become better acquainted with the finacial history New York in the second half of the 19th century. That way the natives will respect me.

Well, I've finished it. Pretty good, although I don't know that I buy Kessner's unstated premise that the U.S. would be shite w/o New York saving our national asses. It is a good introduction to American 19th cent. history. It's all there in miniature; robber barons, labor unions, captains of industry.

[Richard Williams]

Capital City: New York City and the Men Behind America's Rise to Economic Dominance, 1860-1900 by Thomas Kessner (2004)