The Dark Genius Of Wall Street

by Renehan, Edward J., Jr.

• ISBN13: 9780465068852
• ISBN10: 0465068855
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2005-05-24
• Publisher: Basic Books

Summary

Jay Gould was the robber baron's robber baron: the greatest financial and business genius of his time and also the most widely hated. He could go head-to-head with the likes of J. P. Morgan, Cornelius Vanderbilt, and the U.S. Treasury and almost always outsmart them. Gould was the undisputed master of the nation's railroads and telegraph systems at a time when these were the fastest-growing new technologies of the age. His scheme to corner the gold market in 1869 caused the Black Friday panic. He created new ways of manipulating markets, assembling capital and swallowing his competitors. Many of these methods are now standard practice; others were unique to their circumstances and unrepeatable; others were among the first practices prohibited by the SEC when it came into being in the 1930s.Acclaimed biographer Edward J. Renehan, Jr., recounts the dazzling life story of a figure whose stature in his era outranks that of Bill Gates, in a time when a "corporate takeover battle" was literally a battle, involving not just lawyers and bankers but the buying and selling of judges and occasional confrontations between gangs of armed thugs. Renehan combines lively anecdotes with the rich social tapestry of the Gilded Age to create the first balanced biography of a man who was undoubtedly the greatest financial genius of his ageand one of the inventors of modern business.

Author Biography

Edward J. Rehehan Jr. is the author of several books including Dark Genius of Wall Street, The Kennedys at War, The Lion’s Pride, The Secret Six, and John Burroughs. He contributes to such publications as American Heritage and has appeared on the History Channel, C-SPAN, and PBS. He lives in Rhode Island.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
The Mysterious Bearded Gould	1	(6)
Ancestors	7	(6)
Twelve Lines by Night	13	(8)
A Deliberate Student	21	(8)
Rat Traps and Maps	29	(8)
Hidden Mysteries of Life and Death	37	(8)
Gouldsboro	45	(8)
Our Best Friends Tell Us Our Faults	53	(8)
Cunning Lunacy	61	(8)
The Gouldsboro War	69	(6)
A Particular Future	75	(14)
Much to Get Done	89	(6)
The Erie in Chains	95	(10)
Blue Fire	105	(10)
The Abused Machinery of the Law	115	(12)
An Almighty Robbery	127	(12)
Scoundrels	139	(10)
The Smartest Man in America	149	(14)
Where the Woodbine Twineth	163	(16)
Mephistopheles	179	(6)
A Special Stinkpot	185	(18)
A Damned Villain	203	(12)
Transcontinental	215	(14)
Consolidation	229	(18)
Everything but a Good Name	247	(12)
Wires and Els	259	(16)
Ambition Satisfied	275	(22)
Epilogue: The Goulds after Jay	297	(16)
Acknowledgments	313	(2)
Notes	315	(20)
Index	335