The President and the Oligarch: Roosevelt, Mellon, and the Triumph of Big Government

by Greg Steinmetz

Why did one of our greatest presidents ruthlessly persecute one of the richest men in America?

By any measure, Franklin D. Roosevelt is one our most admired presidents. But behind the beaming smile and folksy fireside chats was a ruthless politician willing to use the massive powers of the federal government to crush his enemies. In this thrilling exposé, Greg Steinmetz recounts how FDR targeted America’s third-richest man to prove his progressive credentials and rally support for his sweeping social agenda.

He found his scapegoat in former Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon. Mellon’s name dripped riches. More than any other, it symbolized the Roaring Twenties economic boom and the crack up that followed. FDR publicly blamed Mellon for the Great Depression, using him as a convenient diversion from the New Deal’s failure to bring jobs back to a devastated economy.

Roosevelt tortured the aging, frail and reclusive Mellon, cooking up a fake criminal charge in a bid to put him behind bars. When that fizzled, Roosevelt kept up the fight by making Mellon miserable in tax court. Mellon died before the verdict but not until, one final, jaw dropping twist occurred in this strange clash of titans.

This shocking book reveals the secret sinister side of Roosevelt—and explains how bigovernment won out of over the libertarian economic order that had reigned since the birth of the republic.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

368 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 6, 2026

Reviews

[Janine]

An excursion into dismantling reputations based on flimsy evidence and biased thinking. I would not classify this as a history book because an historian should be more even handed in their approach to a topic. While you don’t have to agree with historical figures, an historian should recognize even-handed history support truth rather than myths.

I read this book but it was a battle. From its beginning I realized the only person getting a fair shake in it was the poor aging Mellon, a man of incredible wealth who was advised against helping out the little guys who invested in flimsy banker promises (I suggest reading 1929 which is an even handed journalist rendering of what happened). Any politician is ruthless so I’m not questioning that but when the air clears I look to see how that person left the country and FDR left if better than Herbert Hoover who wasn’t stupid, he just didn’t see that the American people believed government should help them out. But the great Republican myth that government should leave people alone means they have never believed in this country’s constitution. Then FDR mobilizing the justice department against Mellon 😱. Guess we have to have a book to show the orange toad isn’t the only bad guy. I think this book needs to be retitled: The Savior Oligarch and the Deceitful President - that’s more honest it seems to me.

Every book should have an opportunity to be read (my thanks to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for granting me access to this ARC). So while I am very critical here I still think the book should be read if only to take stock of a long-standing Republican belief that FDR ruined America. Just remember there’s another side to this story.
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NB: I just have to call out a few things because I was so disturbed in my read. In the Introduction I knew I had entered a weird history space. First was what I read about FDR wanting a new economic order because he believed “the prevailing libertarian arrangement- the system in place since the birth of the Republic - should yield to a welfare state . . . .” And then slightly before that FDRs use of Mellon “as a whipping boy, the president sought to stoplight his claim that the Republicans caused the Great Depression.” Then I read about the vindictiveness in today’s government and that pettiness isn’t a partisan thing. So (1) when did our founding fathers create a libertarian styled government; my readings indicate they set up a constitutional republic on “classical liberalism” of the time where free market and laissez faire economics combined with civil liberties under the law. I’m no expert but most modern libertarians seem to me to not want government in their lives. I know there is debate in this topic but I’m not in this author’s camp. (2) Andrew Mellon did not cause the Great Depression but his economic policies helped shape it, so he has a stake in that outcome. And the Republicans were in power for three terms prior to and during that event so to white wash history is anathema to me. Even the US government has reported that the American economy in the modern era has done better under Dems than Republicans - better job and economic growth; I’d point out it was a Democratic president who balanced the budget and left a surplus squandered by the next president, a Republican. (3) FDR remains a craw in the side of Republicans because he was for policies that equaled out citizens - Social Security is do disliked by them today they call it an “entitlement” when it’s a right under the law. (4) there is a big difference between investigating for tax issues versus proclaiming to all that someone should be executed and starting an investigation as our orange melon is fond of doing.

[Steve's Book Stuff]

The President and the Oligarch tells the story of Treasury Secretary Andrew Mellon and the tax case brought against him by the administration of President Franklin Roosevelt. The book follows both Mellon and Roosevelt through the Harding, Coolidge and Hoover administrations and into FDR’s first and second terms.

Author Greg Steinmetz is a former reporter and bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, as well as a former securities analyst and partner at a New York money management firm. He is the author of two previous books, both biographies. The biography of Jacob Fugger called The Richest Man Who Ever Lived and of Jay Gould (American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune).

With this book Steinmetz now has a trilogy of biographies of some of the richest men in history. Andrew Mellon was the second generation of an American family. His father, an Irish immigrant to Pittsburgh, was a lawyer, judge, and the founder of the highly successful Mellon Bank. Andrew grew the bank through timely investments into a vast business empire.

As we meet Andrew Mellon in this book he is about to get his first entree into national politics at the invitation of his home state senator Philander Knox. Knox turned to Mellon for help in funding the efforts of a group of lawmakers looking to fight Woodrow Wilson’s plan for a League of Nations. But the story really begins a few years later, once Mellon has answered the call of President Harding to serve his country as Secretary of the Treasury.

Mellon served as Treasury Secretary under three Presidents - Harding, Coolidge and Hoover.

Mellon’s father, Thomas Mellon, was famous for his miserliness. Secretary Mellon carried many of the same ideas as his father. He was a firm believer in the notion of “social Darwinism”. Poor folks, he believed, were poor through their own fault, while the rich prospered due to their own inherent skills and abilities.

As Treasury Secretary Mellon favored a balanced budget and a tax reform scheme, known as the Mellon Plan, which favored lower taxes for businesses.

When the stock market crashed in 1929 it was Mellon’s view that the best course for the federal government was to do nothing, just as it had done in previous economic downturns in 1873, 1893, 1907 and 1921.

For Roosevelt, Mellon embodied all that he felt had been wrong with the preceding Republican administrations and how they had handled the economy. They had let the stock market boom to with speculation, and promoted stock purchases made largely with debt, thus wittingly or unwittingly turning the whole of Wall Street into a casino and a virtual Ponzi scheme. They had favored the rich while doing little for the “forgotten man”.

So it was that Roosevelt asked his Attorney General Homer Cummings and the IRS to investigate Andrew Mellon. He did so after allegations against Mellon had been raised by congressman Louis McFadden. McFadden, a Republican Pennsylvania banker like Mellon had earned scorn from fellow Republicans for his attempt to impeach President Hoover. He was considered a crackpot by many, and not, perhaps, the most reliable source of information.

Steinmetz is helpful in shedding light on the political considerations that Roosevelt was working under during the protracted legal battle with Mellon. Roosevelt was pressured from the right by Republicans who railed against his “socialist” New Deal and from the left by Huey Long, Senator and former Governor of Louisiana, whose populist campaign favored “soaking the rich”. As he began to consider his first re-election campaign Roosevelt may indeed have felt he needed to be showing some action that would address the concerns of Long’s followers.

Andrew Mellon died in August of 1937. In December of that year the tax commissioners issued their findings. Mellon was exonerated.

Steinmetz did a good job creating an interesting and enlightening read about Andrew Mellon and this unfortunate piece of Roosevelt’s presidency. He comes at the material with what reads to me as a favorable eye toward some of Mellon’s social Darwinism, which can be off putting. But with his WSJ journalist hat on he takes that only so far and doesn’t go too overboard with it.

I don’t think any president should be using the power of the office to persecute fellow Americans. So I can’t help but ask myself how many similar books will be on shelves 80 or 90 years hence whose subject matter is our current president’s vindictive use of his Department of Justice? I am guessing it will unfortunately be more than one.

[D.Ann]

In The President and the Oligarch: Roosevelt, Mellon, and the Triumph of Big Government author Greg Steinmetz takes the reader on a journey across four presidencies and gives a politically immersive education on the Great Depression in order to culminate in the circumstances of an often overlooked vendetta Franklin Roosevelt had against Andrew Mellon. While this book is about the Roosevelt-Mellon schism, in giving the appropriate context for that situation, Steinmetz has created a book that conveys a thorough accounting of the events surrounding the Depression and a framework for understanding the ongoing disagreement between big and small government in the United States.

The author shows political intrigue from all sides; between Roosevelt, Mellon, and their closest aides, the greater Republican and Democratic parties, others in government observing the path these men took the country, and even the everyday citizens like farmers and housewives. With the lens moving from the big picture of government decisions to the effects in small towns across the country and back out again, the reader sees not only what happened between the President, treasury secretary, and the financial unraveling of the 1930s, but how and why it all happened.

Steinmetz presents the two men in a balanced manner, acknowledging the positive and negative attributes and possible motives behind their decisions. Utilizing primary sources, like letters and diaries, throughout the book he builds three-dimensional perspectives on both men and the larger political situation in the country at the time. Voice was given to ways the economy was built up with Mellon at the financial helm, but also how that very same economy was a nightmare for ordinary people. We see how Roosevelt wanted to steer government to create programs to help communities, but how he tended to time intervention to his political favor and how that was not always good for citizens. While the writing does give a slight impression that the author may be biased in Mellon’s favor, and the epilogue does basically admit to just that, Steinmetz did include details that make both men look equally upstanding and unscrupulous.

This book provides a great deal of political instruction and a timeline for understanding the Great Depression, while being written in a fast-paced style that holds the reader’s interest. This is far from a dry historical read and would appeal to those already well-versed in the history of the time period as well as those who are just starting to read this genre.

*I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author. I voluntarily chose to review it, and all opinions expressed are my own.

[J Earl]

The President and the Oligarch by Greg Steinmetz is similar to his other books, well-written but heavily favoring one side in presentation.

You just need to understand when someone worships the almighty dollar, you know, like maybe a hedge fund manager, everything is horribly, in every sense of that word, skewed toward profit as the desired end of any and all actions. Therefore, when presenting a journalistic account of history (this is obviously not a work from a historian) it is with an eye on the story they want to tell and not entirely on the story as it is. There is a big difference between how a journalist researches and a historian researches. This book is an excellent example, the research was done, and a lot of research without question, with an eye on painting one person in the worst possible light and the other in the best possible light. That means nuance and understanding motivation for one and the opposite for the other.

This is certainly one of FDR's most ruthless, and largely needlessly so, episodes. I don't think that should be overlooked nor excused. But to hear narrow money-driven minds give the impression that the "goal" was big government is borderline insane. Was bigger government what FDR felt was needed to make this country better for more people? yes. That wasn't a goal or, in and of itself, what he wanted. But that doesn't fit the narrative of helping people being bad and more profit being good.

I still recommend reading the book, like I said, it is well-written and does highlight what can happen when those in power overstep what is absolutely necessary. Just remember, there is an agenda here and Mellon was no angel nor was he someone who hesitated to flex his muscles when he was in the more powerful position, so this isn't the good vs bad story a profit-over-humanity mindset wants to portray.

Reviewed from a copy made available by the publisher via NetGalley.

[Eliza's Reading]

I was excited to read The President and the Oligarch by Greg Steinmetz until it didn’t feel like a historical read and more biased towards the elderly Oligarch, Mellon who was relentlessly persecuted by Roosevelt and his administration. The writing was straightforward and I could see there was some research that went into the making of this book but it was cherry picked to tell a story that under Mellon’s guidance the economy was fantastic and that he went to his grave fighting in the courts. That may be true on paper with the stock market rising insanely year after year but that is also what played a major part in the 1929 collapse, it also may be true that it was vindictiveness from Roosevelt’s administration to go after Mellon in court. But I don’t feel that enough research or time was spent on this argument whether through court recordings or memo’s to suggest that the cases were not warranted. So no I disagree with the notion of poor Mellon and ruthless Roosevelt. Most historians I read believe in delivering the facts without taking sides and I just didn’t feel this author stood up to that level of writing.

Thank you, Greg Steinmetz and Simon & Schuster for providing this e-ARC via NetGalley for review.

[Casey]

I am always disappointed when an author determines the direction of a history book before he begins writing. This is very apparent here in making Andrew Mellon a focus of the prior administrations and Roosevelt as a petty, vindictive man. Granted Roosevelt had his faults, but also had a large number of positive traits and Mellon also had a number of faults that were overlooked in this book.

I received a free Kindle copy of this book courtesy of Net Galley and the publisher with the understanding that I would post a review on Net Galley, Goodreads, Amazon and my nonfiction book review blog.

[Harriet Smith]

The subject and the people were interesting to learn about in this well-documented book. But, it did seem somewhat one-sided. That being saud, I did appreciate the recommendation of a Mellon biography which the author referenced.