Morgan

Starred review from March 1, 1999
Often celebrated as the ideal capitalist or excoriated as the robber baron who most epitomized the excesses and iniquities of the Gilded Age, J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) has, in Strouse, finally been accorded a biographer whose talents match his enormous legacy. Strouse (whose Alice James won the Bancroft Prize) seamlessly weaves Morgan's exploits as America's leading banker with his frenetic social life, in the process vividly evoking the spirit of the Gilded Age. Though she captures Morgan's famed imperiousness and bluster, she paints a much fuller portrait of Morgan than has hitherto been available. Morgan was the consummate financier. Responsible for the consolidation of most of the nation's railroads as well as the formation of U.S. Steel, he also helped underwrite the creation of General Electric, International Harvester and AT&T. Before there was a Federal Reserve Board, he functioned as America's de facto central banker. He famously enjoyed his wealth and wasn't shy about spreading his money around. A passionate lover of the arts, he served as president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and played a major role in building that institution into one of the finest of its kind. Strouse spent more than 10 years researching her latest work, and readers are rewarded with numerous nuggets about the colorful people who surrounded Morgan. The Morgan who emerges from these pages is, for all his hard ambition and ruthlessness, not merely ruthless and greedy. By blending the different facets of this most complicated man, Strouse humanizes--without shrinking or whitewashing--one of America's mythic figures. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.

Starred review from March 15, 1999
Ron Chernow won the National Book Award for The House of Morgan (LJ 2/1/90), a riveting tale of the American banking empire started by George Peabody in London and then inherited by the Morgan family and transferred to New York. In Chernow's book, J. Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913) is a minor character. Bancroft prizewinner Strouse's definitive biography corrects this slight as it focuses on the accomplishments and failures of Morgan as financier, art collector, and American. His bank helped transform the United States into the strongest industrial nation in the world. He reorganized the railroads; created vast industrial empires, including U.S. Steel, AT&T, International Harvester, and General Electric; and served as the nation's lender of last resort. A major collector of art and historic treasures, he built the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, helped found the American Museum of Natural History, and served as patron and president of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Basing her work almost entirely on recently discovered archival materials, award-winning biographer Strouse brings Morgan to life and provides a startlingly fresh look at how the country changed during his lifetime. A major work that should be included in all academic and large public libraries.--Norman B. Hutcherson, Kern Cty. Lib., Bakersfield, CA

March 1, 1999
Strouse's portrait of John Pierpont Morgan is a monumental biography on the scale of last year's "Titan," Ron Chernow's remarkable chronicle of another of the so-called robber barons, John D. Rockefeller Sr. Although Rockefeller had already been profiled a number of times, Chernow's account is proving to be the definitive one. Such may also be the case with Strouse's book, even though a number of works have already been devoted to Morgan, including, ironically, Chernow's National Book Award winner "The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty" (1990). The subject of Strouse's only other foray into biography is far removed from her current one. Strouse won acclaim in 1980 for "Alice James," her story of the troubled life of the sister of Henry and William. In "Morgan," as did Chernow in "Titan," Strouse focuses on the person rather than the enterprise and comes up with a more well rounded and sympathetic picture than has previously been shown. And like Chernow, Strouse was granted access to materials and archives that earlier biographers had been denied or had ignored. ((Reviewed March 1, 1999))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1999, American Library Association.)