Financial Founding Fathers: The Men Who Made America Rich

When you think of the founding fathers, you think of men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin—exceptional minds and matchless statesmen who led the colonies to a seemingly impossible victory over the British and established the constitutional and legal framework for our democratic government. But the American Revolution was about far more than freedom and liberty. It was about economics as well. 

Robert E. Wright and David J. Cowen here chronicle how a different group of founding fathers forged the wealth and institutions necessary to transform the American colonies from a diffuse alliance of contending business interests into one cohesive economic superpower. From Alexander Hamilton to Andrew Jackson, the authors focus on the lives of nine Americans in particular—some famous, some unknown, others misunderstood, but all among our nation’s financial founding fathers. Such men were instrumental in creating and nurturing a financial system that drove economic growth in the nascent United States because they were quick to realize that wealth was as crucial as the Constitution in securing the blessings of liberty and promoting the general welfare. The astonishing economic development made possible by our financial founding fathers was indispensable to the preservation of national unity and of support for a government that was then still a profoundly radical and delicate political experiment.  

Grand in scope and vision, Financial Founding Fathers is an entertaining and inspiring history of the men who made America rich and steered her toward greatness.

When you think of the founding fathers, you think of men like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Benjamin Franklin—exceptional minds and matchless statesmen who led the colonies to a seemingly impossible victory over the British and established the constitutional and legal framework for our democratic government. But the American Revolution was about far more than freedom and liberty. It was about economics as well. 

Robert E. Wright and David J. Cowen here chronicle how a different group of founding fathers forged the wealth and institutions necessary to transform the American colonies from a diffuse alliance of contending business interests into one cohesive economic superpower. From Alexander Hamilton to Andrew Jackson, the authors focus on the lives of nine Americans in particular—some famous, some unknown, others misunderstood, but all among our nation’s financial founding fathers. Such men were instrumental in creating and nurturing a financial system that drove economic growth in the nascent United States because they were quick to realize that wealth was as crucial as the Constitution in securing the blessings of liberty and promoting the general welfare. The astonishing economic development made possible by our financial founding fathers was indispensable to the preservation of national unity and of support for a government that was then still a profoundly radical and delicate political experiment.  

Grand in scope and vision, Financial Founding Fathers is an entertaining and inspiring history of the men who made America rich and steered her toward greatness.

Library Journal

The early financial history of the United States merits additional popular and scholarly attention, and Wright (economics, Stern Sch. of Business, NYU; The First Wall Street: Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, and the Birth of American Finance) and Cowen (The Origins and Economic Impact of the First Bank of the United States, 1791-1797) provide biographical information on nine founders of America's financial and economic systems, from Alexander Hamilton to Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle. The authors explore how the development of financial institutions, such as banks, life insurance companies, trading companies, and canals, affected our government institutions and democratic principles. They argue that a key factor in American finance was the formation of capital markets in the 18th and 19th centuries that established the United States as a credit-worthy nation, and supported economic growth through increased possibilities for large-scale enterprises such as manufacturing. The book emphasizes biographical information with limited explanation of financial and economic arguments. For some of the individuals covered, this information is a brief version of material found in larger works (e.g., Ron Chernow's recent Alexander Hamilton). This book is useful for large public libraries so that general readers may understand formative economic ideas in American history.-Steven Puro, St. Louis Univ. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Robert E. Wright is clinical associate professor of economics in the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University. He is the author of many works, including The First Wall Street: Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, and the Birth of American Finance, also from the University of Chicago Press. David J. Cowen is a Wall Street veteran and independent scholar in the New York metropolitan area. He is the author of The Origins and Economic Impact of the First Bank of the United States, 1791–1797.