The Big Board: A History of the New York Stock Market

by Robert Sobel, Broadus Mitchell

This fascinating book shows how the New York securities market, with its promise of great wealth and its equally devastating disappointments, is a vital link in the history of American economic growth.

Genres: Nonfiction

412 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1965

About the author

Robert Sobel was an American professor of history at Hofstra University, and a well-known and prolific writer of business histories. He was also a chess Master, who represented the United States at the 1957 and 1958 Student chess Olympiads; he defeated thirteen-year-old future World Champion Bobby Fischer at Montreal 1956.

Despite his prolific writings in business history, he is most famous for his single novel, For Want of a Nail, an alternate history of the United States.

Reviews

[Mark Higgins · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book provides a fairly good summary of the history of the New York Stock Exchange, and it has some particularly memorable quotes. However, readers need to be aware that some of the observations are factually incorrect, and it is unwise to use this book for research purposes. Some of the errors are pretty egregious. For example, Sobel wrote that nearly 650 banks failed in 1837, but there weren't even 650 banks in operation at the time. He also claimed that Irving Fisher prognosticated that the U.S. economy would collapse if World War I broke out in 1914, but a review of Fisher's article (which Sobel cites) is far less dire. In fact, Fisher claimed it was possible the U.S. would benefit. This is disappointing because the book is a good resource in many ways. But the inaccuracies limit its utility.