The Death of the Banker: The Decline and Fall of the Great Financial Dynasties and the Triumph of the Small Investor (Vintage)

Ron Chernow, the National Book Award-winning author of two astoundingly comprehensive biographies of prominent American financiers, now examines the ultimate decline of such power brokers and the corresponding rise of international money in The Death of the Banker. This surprisingly concise (but no less illuminating) volume opens with an expanded version of a speech on "the dwindling role of the financial intermediary" that he presented early in 1997; it concludes with condensed versions of his earlier books on J. P. Morgan and the Warburgs that show how the essence of financial power has changed in the 20th century.