The Hour of Fate
Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism
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4.4 • 18 Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
A riveting narrative of Wall Street buccaneering, political intrigue, and two of American history's most colossal characters, struggling for mastery in an era of social upheaval and rampant inequality.
It seemed like no force in the world could slow J. P. Morgan's drive to power. In the summer of 1901, the financier was assembling his next mega-deal: Northern Securities, an enterprise that would affirm his dominance in America's most important industry-the railroads.
Then, a bullet from an anarchist's gun put an end to the business-friendly presidency of William McKinley. A new chief executive bounded into office: Theodore Roosevelt. He was convinced that as big business got bigger, the government had to check the influence of the wealthiest or the country would inch ever closer to collapse. By March 1902, battle lines were drawn: the government sued Northern Securities for antitrust violations. But as the case ramped up, the coal miners' union went on strike and the anthracite pits that fueled Morgan's trains and heated the homes of Roosevelt's citizens went silent. With millions of dollars on the line, winter bearing down, and revolution in the air, it was a crisis that neither man alone could solve.
Richly detailed and propulsively told, The Hour of Fate is the gripping story of a banker and a president thrown together in the crucible of national emergency even as they fought in court. The outcome of the strike and the case would change the course of our history. Today, as the country again asks whether saving democracy means taming capital, the lessons of Roosevelt and Morgan's time are more urgent than ever.
Winner of the 2021 Theodore Roosevelt Association Book Prize
Finalist for the Presidential Leadership Book Award
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Journalist Berfield debuts with a vivid account of the early 20th-century battle of wills between President Theodore Roosevelt and financier J.P. Morgan that led to the breakup of the Northern Securities railroad company. After highlighting the parallels between Morgan and Roosevelt's early lives (both were born into the upper class, both had childhoods marked by illness), and documenting their divergent political and economic beliefs (Roosevelt became a progressive trust-buster; Morgan believed capitalism should be "orderly and concentrated, directed from above by powerful men"), Berfield expands the story to include labor leader John Mitchell, a driving force behind the 1902 United Mine Workers strike, which threatened both the railroad industry and America's heating supply and led to the federal government's first intervention in a labor dispute. Weaving together the perspectives of labor, capital, and government, Berfield documents the origins of reforms including the eight-hour workday and worker's compensation; she finds drama in complex and potentially dry business transactions, and makes insightful comparisons to today's progressive movement. This entertaining account will resonate with American history buffs and those who agree with Berfield that "the battle to make American capitalism more fair rages just as furiously" today as it did at the turn of the last century.
