Wall Street: A History, Updated Edition

Originally published in 1997 and revised in 2004, Charles Geisst's Wall Street: A History remains the most definitive take on how a small, concentrated pocket of lower Manhattan came to have such enormous influence in national and world affairs. This timely new edition will contain two new chapters, picking up after the fall of Enron and reflecting on the recent events of the global financial crisis. The first will cover the events precipitating the recent financial meltdown, and the second will cover the imminent policy changes of the Obama administration, which Geisst foresees will mark the end of an era of opposition to strong government, and the beginning of a period of state-dominated capitalism. Wall Street is at once the story of the street itself, from the days when the wall was merely a defensive barricade to the modern era in which it is the economic colossus of today, and an engaging economic history of the United States, and the role Wall Street played in making America the most powerful economy in the world, and the many challenges to that role it has faced in recent years.