Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power (P.S.) | 
 enlarge | Author: John Steele Gordon
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Category: Book
List Price: $15.95
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Rating:  43 reviews
Sales Rank: 24010
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 1.2
ISBN: 0060505125
Dewey Decimal Number: 330
EAN: 9780060505127
ASIN: 0060505125
Publication Date: November 1, 2005
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Product Description
Throughout time, from ancient Rome to modern Britain, the great empires built and maintained their domination through force of arms and political power. But not the United States. America has dominated the world in a new, peaceful, and pervasive way -- through the continued creation of staggering wealth. In this authoritative, engrossing history, John Steele Gordon captures as never before the true source of our nation's global influence: wealth and the capacity to create more of it. This P.S. edition features an extra 16 pages of insights into the book, including author interviews, recommended reading, and more.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 38 more reviews...
 It's an epic history, stupid October 21, 2008
It is amazing to me that someone could read this book - as the publisher's weekly reviewer and some of these Amazon reviewers have - and conclude this is an "unfair", biased account of American economic history because it completely ignores the disparity of wealth our capitalist system created.
Really?
Then you have missed the point of this book...missed the forest of the trees, as it were.
This is an epic history of an epic nation. Think about your comments in the epic context of this book. Let me help: Answer these questions about the percentage of Americans in 1780/1880/1980 that could:
-Travel to family or friends 100s, or even 1000s of miles away for a meal? For an emergency?
-Communicate with loved ones, not in the same room?
-Hear music that wasn't being played in the same room?
-Have an iced beverage in the summer time?
-Enjoy a warm bath in the winter?
-See 50/70/90/99% of their children grow to adult-hood?
-Live to see grandchildren? Great grandchildren?
-Have the ability to show their grand children/great grandchildren/etc pictures of themselves?
-Spend less than 80/60/40/20/5% of their waking moments feeding themselves?
-Have fresh, out of season, produce?
-Have access to virtually any book ever published in the last 100 years? Content not published?
-Expect to catch typhoid/tuberculosis/small pox/pneumonia/mumps/measles/polio?
-Survive childbirth/a heart-attack/diabetes/a broken femur/
-Survive to 40/60/80/90?
These are the perspectives of this book. It never occurred to me a significant number of people in 1850 didn't even know what ice was. That is, before ships and insulation improved to the point where New England ice could be exported to Central America and India. That is, until refrigeration took over (one can imagine the local politician bemoaning the loss of jobs in the ice-farming industry). This book is page after page of these obvious-in-hindsight, incredibly entertaining tidbits.
But, back to you narrow minded reviewers: the above doesn't even address the core economic fallacy inherent in your phony wealth statistics -unlike the socialist systems you no-doubt favor, ours isn't a caste system - the wealthiest 1% and poorest 10% are not the same people year after year. One of the greatest explanatory variables of % wealth disparity in this country is time spent in this country, governed by both age and immigration status. A pre-med college student is poor, yet 20 years later as a surgeon, is rich; a craftsman at 20 who puts away 10% of his income over a 40 year career starts poor, ends "rich"; a Mexican immigrant who arrives with nothing sees his children go to college.
We are living in the greatest economic environment of opportunity and prosperity in the history of the world and, yet, a significant number of people are finding ways to be miserable, ingrates, and ruin it for the next generation. Read this book and gain some perspective, for your sake and (unfortunately, given our political climate, for my sake and my children's sake as well).
 Pure Economic Ignorance October 14, 2008
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
I first heard Mr. Gordon on 20/20 talking about the 1987 mini-crash of the stock market, and when he said, "The Fed did the right thing then, it injected huge amounts of liquidity into the market." If people believe creating money out of thin air and giving it to the politically connected helps the economy, they really need to go back to Econ 101. Oh wait, Econ 101 these days says exactly that in almost every government run school in America. For a much more detailed and insightful look at the History of Banking and the true cause of the booms and busts (hint: The Federal Reserve itself), read Murray Rothbard's "A History of Money and Banking in the United States," or his "The Mystery of Banking." There you will find sound logic, as opposed to this trash.
the guy is a flag waver August 12, 2008
2 out of 10 found this review helpful
this book is very nationalistic and pro-america in the phrasing. which made me want to stop reading instantly and i couldn't take some things seriously. there were some claims about america that were made in the book that were just included and unexplained while things that is common knowledge to most people were given detailed summaries.
 A celebration that offers no guide to the future. March 22, 2008
1 out of 9 found this review helpful
The author celebrates triumphs of the past but seriously fails to prepare a reader for challenges of the future, especially for emerging realities likely to diminish the US's heretofore unique status and powers. He seems too ideologically committed to mainstream, right-of-center economics/political economy to see or convey a more nuanced picture.
Otherwise, I agree with (and will not echo) the reviews presented by Amazon and the Washington Post at the outset of this website page.
From tobacco to the Internet, the unstoppable American economy January 12, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book is a one volume "epic history of American economic power" that focuses on the fantastic capacity of the United States as a machine to create wealth (if not to redistribute it); its approach is surprisingly similar to what a 19th century bourgeois apologist might have chosen, that of a believer in a vision of "progress" that would now appear old fashioned and naive, especially to the more left leaning readers. But one has to admit that one of the most striking aspects of American history is the sheer speed and size of all economic developments, and that, from the very start.
Of course this is due to the immensity and diversity of the territory and its natural resources, in wildlife, agricultural lands, timber, minerals, oil, etc. But also, as this territory filled with people, to its huge size as a market for industrial and later consumer products and services, combined with the absence of the many cultural and political obstacles that some may say still characterize "Old Europe".
As a consequence, America was and may still be a land of incredible opportunity for entrepreneurs, native or immigrant, and capitalists. This gave substance to "the American dream" and it is this powerful, seemingly unstoppable march that the author has chosen to emphasize and dramatize. He succeeded in writing an enjoyable book that reads like a novel. I would recommend it to anyone interested in the subject who prefers not to be bogged down in charts, graphs and econometrics. American economic history written in this way is fascinating and I picked up at least two anecdotes that are quite revealing. First, every stock exchange boom in American history attracted a lot of capital from abroad (this includes the 1990s dotcom bubble); European investors lost a lot of money each time, financing American growth without gaining much from it. Second, American farmers suffered a lot from the advent of the automobile. All the crops that used to feed horses were suddenly made "available" for humans, which depressed agricultural prices for decades and caused the State to intervene to support farmers. With the current development of biofuels (the new name for fodder), this trend is now going the other way...
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