Money Kings: The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street and Shaped Modern America

The extraordinary saga of the German-Jewish immigrants who shaped the destiny of American finance—now familiar names like Goldman and Sachs, Warburg and Schiff and Lehman and Seligman—traces the interconnected origin stories of these financial dynasties, chronicling their paths to Wall Street dominance. Illustrations.
"The saga of the German-Jewish immigrants-with now familiar names like Goldman and Sachs, Kuhn and Loeb, Lehman and Seligman-who built the modern American finance system and shaped the world economy, from the New York Times bestselling author of Sons of Wichita. Joseph Seligman arrived in the United States in 1837, with the equivalent of $100 sewn into the lining of his pants. Then came Henry and Emanuel Lehman, who would open a general store in Montgomery, Alabama. Not far behind was Marcus Goldman, among the "Forty-Eighters" fleeing a Germany that had relegated Jews to an underclass. These industrious immigrants would soon go from peddling trinkets and buying up shopkeepers' IOUs to forming the largest investment banks in the world, underwriting businesses like Sears, General Motors, and Macy's that have long defined the face of a nation. In Money Kings, Daniel Schulman follows these dynasties through their earliest gambits; their major business deals and ascent to the deeply antisemitic upper class ofthe Gilded Age; the complexities of the Civil War, World War I, and the Zionist movement that tested their fractured identities; and their enduring effect on the many non-German Jewish immigrants who came spilling off steamships in New York Harbor in theearly 1900s, including Schulman's grandparents. With the dynamic banker and philanthropist Jacob Schiff leading the way, The Money Kings is an engrossing tale about materialism and moralism, family successions and alliances, and the immigrants who dreamed America into being"--
The incredible saga of the German-Jewish immigrants—with now familiar names like Goldman and Sachs, Kuhn and Loeb, Warburg and Schiff, Lehman and Seligman—who profoundly influenced the rise of modern finance (and so much more), from the New York Times best-selling author of Sons of WichitaJoseph Seligman arrived in the United States in 1837, with the equivalent of $100 sewn into the lining of his pants. Then came the Lehman brothers, who would open a general store in Montgomery, Alabama. Not far behind were Solomon Loeb and Marcus Goldman, among the “Forty-Eighters” fleeing a Germany that had relegated Jews to an underclass.These industrious immigrants would soon go from peddling trinkets and buying up shopkeepers’ IOUs to forming what would become some of the largest investment banks in the world—Goldman Sachs, Kuhn Loeb, Lehman Brothers, J. & W. Seligman & Co. They would clash and collaborate with J. P. Morgan, E. H. Harriman, Jay Gould, and other famed tycoons of the era. And their firms would help to transform the United States from a debtor nation into a financial superpower, capitalizing American industry and underwriting some of the twentieth century’s quintessential companies, like General Motors, Macy’s, and Sears. Along the way, they would shape the destiny not just of American finance but of the millions of Eastern European Jews who spilled off steamships in New York Harbor in the early 1900s, including Daniel Schulman’s paternal grandparents.  In The Money Kings, Schulman unspools a sweeping narrative that traces the interconnected origin stories of these financial dynasties. He chronicles their paths to Wall Street dominance, as they navigated the deeply antisemitic upper class of the Gilded Age, and the complexities of the Civil War, World War I, and the Zionist movement that tested both their burgeoning empires and their identities as Americans, Germans, and Jews.