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An Unlikely Trust
Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Improbable Partnership That Remade American Business
Published by Lyons Press
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
Table of Contents
About The Book
At the dawn of the twentieth century, Theodore Roosevelt and J. Pierpont Morgan were the two most powerful men in America, perhaps the world. As the nation’s preeminent financier, Morgan presided over an elemental shift in American business, away from family-owned companies and toward modern corporations of unparalleled size and influence. As president, Theodore Roosevelt expanded the power of that office to an unprecedented degree, seeking to rein in those corporations and to rebalance their interests with those of workers, consumers, and society at large.
Overpowering figures and titanic personalities, Roosevelt and Morgan could easily have become sworn enemies. And when they have been considered together (never before at book length), they have generally been portrayed as battling colossi, the great trust builder versus the original trustbuster. But their long association was far more complex than that, and even mutually beneficial.
Despite their many differences in temperament and philosophy, Roosevelt and Morgan had much in common—social class, an unstinting Victorian moralism, a drive for power, a need for order, and a genuine (though not purely altruistic) concern for the welfare of the nation. Working this common ground, the premier progressive and the quintessential capitalist were able to accomplish what neither could have achieved alone—including, more than once, averting national disaster. In the process they also changed forever the way that government and business worked together.
An Unlikely Trust is the story of the uneasy but fruitful collaboration between Theodore Roosevelt and Pierpont Morgan. It is also the story of how government and business evolved from a relationship of laissez-faire to the active regulation that we know today. And it is an account of how, despite all that has changed in America over the past century, so much remains the same, including the growing divide between rich and poor; the tangled bonds uniting politicians and business leaders; and the pervasive feeling that government is working for the special interests rather than for the people. Not least of all, it is the story of how citizens with vastly disparate outlooks and interests managed to come together for the good of their common country.
Overpowering figures and titanic personalities, Roosevelt and Morgan could easily have become sworn enemies. And when they have been considered together (never before at book length), they have generally been portrayed as battling colossi, the great trust builder versus the original trustbuster. But their long association was far more complex than that, and even mutually beneficial.
Despite their many differences in temperament and philosophy, Roosevelt and Morgan had much in common—social class, an unstinting Victorian moralism, a drive for power, a need for order, and a genuine (though not purely altruistic) concern for the welfare of the nation. Working this common ground, the premier progressive and the quintessential capitalist were able to accomplish what neither could have achieved alone—including, more than once, averting national disaster. In the process they also changed forever the way that government and business worked together.
An Unlikely Trust is the story of the uneasy but fruitful collaboration between Theodore Roosevelt and Pierpont Morgan. It is also the story of how government and business evolved from a relationship of laissez-faire to the active regulation that we know today. And it is an account of how, despite all that has changed in America over the past century, so much remains the same, including the growing divide between rich and poor; the tangled bonds uniting politicians and business leaders; and the pervasive feeling that government is working for the special interests rather than for the people. Not least of all, it is the story of how citizens with vastly disparate outlooks and interests managed to come together for the good of their common country.
Product Details
- Publisher: Lyons Press (January 1, 2018)
- Length: 288 pages
- ISBN13: 9781493025787
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Raves and Reviews
One of those rare chronicles of American business that brings its subjects to life. In An Unlikely Trust, Gerard Helferich brilliantly highlights an often uneasy relationship between two larger-than-life leaders which did so much to shape the twentieth century.
– J. Lee Annis Jr., author of Howard Baker: Conciliator in an Age of Crisis
J.P. Morgan and Theodore Roosevelt—the great trust builder and the great trustbuster—ought logically to have been enemies. And yet, as Gerard Helferich shows in his captivating new book, Morgan and Roosevelt shared a great many attitudes, including a genuine concern for America. At a time when Americans are again struggling to figure out the right relationship between business and government, An Unlikely Trust is extraordinarily relevant.
– Paul Aron, author of Founding Feuds and We Hold These Truths
This book demands a more complex view of the history as it fills long-held black–and- white images with grays that define a nuanced relationship born of the culture, economic environment, and national interests shared by Roosevelt and Morgan. Helferich’s well-researched and well-written work will serve the needs of scholars and informed readers who enjoy American history told as a great story.
– John M. Hilpert, author of American Cyclone: Theodore Roosevelt and His 1900 Whistlestop Campaign
At first glance, financier J. P. Morgan and President Theodore Roosevelt appear as natural foils: the trust-builder and the trust-buster. In his well-researched and highly readable new book, Gerard Helferich instead presents the two men as complementary. Helferich shows how instead of demonizing each other, these two giants of the era set aside their equally-giant-sized egos to work for the benefit of the nation.
– Edward P. Kohn, editor of A Most Glorious Ride: The Diaries of Theodore Roosevelt, 1877-1886
This is an outstanding work of scholarship that is so intelligently crafted that there were times when I couldn’t put it down. Everyone knows that Roosevelt and J.P. Morgan circled each other with bemused wariness, but Gerard Helferich has shown that beneath the surface bluster they were essentially cautious allies, certainly not enemies. An Unlikely Trust provides an indispensable account of the 1902 anthracite coal strike that tested and then established Theodore Roosevelt’s presidential authority. It brilliantly illuminates how these two giants of American history, both New Yorkers, found ways to work together during key episodes of the Roosevelt presidency, including the Panama Canal affair, and the near-collapse of the American economy 1907. They even worked out an uneasy accommodation over the place of trusts in American life.
– Clay S. Jenkinson, author of A Free and Hardy Life: Theodore Roosevelt’s Sojourn in the American West, founder of the Theodore Roosevelt Center, and principal scholar-consultant to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library
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