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Empire of Wealth, An | 
 enlarge | Manufacturer: HarperCollins e-books
Category: EBooks
List Price: $12.95
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $2.96 (23%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  41 reviews
Sales Rank: 4565
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 496
Dewey Decimal Number: 330
ASIN: B0015WAOS0
Publication Date: March 25, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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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 36 more reviews...
 the guy is a flag waver August 12, 2008
2 out of 5 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 6 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...
A Must Read for All Americans! November 8, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is simply, a superb book. I thought I knew about American history, but many of the articles in the book really opened my eyes. The author explodes a number of myths, including the underlying reasons for the Great Depression.
What saddens my is that this type of history is not being taught to our children. That is why I suggest that every American should read this book. Wouldn't be bad to have the ideas and history televised in the same way as "Free To Choose".
Hmmm, come to think of it, this book should be required reading for all Europeans who tell us how horrible we are to be Americans. It is very uplifting.
An Educational, Though Somewhat Biased, Account Of American Economic History April 22, 2007
4 out of 6 found this review helpful
Gordon's intent is to present an accessible yet highly informative history of American business and in this effort he largely succeeds. I especially enjoyed this book because I have a strong interest in American history but am far from an expert in economics matters. Yet Gordon was able to educate me on issues such as the gold standard vs free silver debate of the late 19th century. He writes in a clear, simple prose that enables potentially complicated subjects to become more understandable to the lay reader. Basically, I learned more from this book than any other I have read so far this year.
But Gordon is a pro-business conservative and his writings are clearly a celebration of America's financial and technological truimphs without much interest in the shortcomings of our especially "individualistic" form of capitalism. For example, he hardly mentions the environmental degradation often caused by unregulated business practices or the extreme inequalities of wealth and poverty that exist in our nation.
Still Gordon is far from a dogmatic thinker and he does provide criticism about the excesses of unregulated capitalism when he considers it appropriate. For example, he makes a convincing case that Andrew Jackson's decision to close the central bank was a disaster that led to numerous financial panics and economic downturns until the establishment of the Federal Reserve System in 1913.
Yes, Gordon is a bit biased and perhaps too celebratory about the virtues of American business. But still the book is very well written and offers so much useful knowledge that it deserves to be read.
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