Genre: Biography
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, 2013
Pages: 384
Rating: Recommend
Synopsis: No woman in the Gilded Age made as much money as Hetty Green, America’s first female tycoon. A strong woman who forged her own path, she was worth at least $100 million by the end of her life in 1916—equal to about $2.5 billion today.
Green was mocked for her simple Quaker ways and her unfashionable frugality in an era of opulence and excess; the press even nicknamed her “The Witch of Wall Street.” But those who knew her admired her wit and wisdom, and while financiers around her rose and fell as financial bubbles burst, she steadily amassed a fortune that supported businesses, churches, municipalities, and even the city of New York. Janet Wallach’s engrossing biography reveals striking parallels between past financial crises and current recession woes, and speaks not only to history buffs but to today’s investors, who just might learn a thing or two from Hetty Green.
Review: Every once in a while I enjoy listening to books on CD in my car. I spend a lot of time in my car traveling between home, school, and work so it's good use of my time. Plus, books are far more entertaining then hearing the same ten songs played over and over again on the radio.
In the past I've always listened to mystery's or crime novels. It took me a bit to get into the rhythm of listening to a biography.
I'm not good at math and don't pay much attention to Wall Street, but I still found this story fascinating. I believe that speaks to Janet Wallach as a writer, and to Hetty Green for being Hetty Green. People are complex and reading about them is rarely dull.
It is also interesting to see how history remembers people, or if it does at all. As in the case of both Hetty Green and W.A. Clark, their names have faded into obscurity. Such key players in their time, but hardly household names a little of a century later.
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