The Hour of Destiny: Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Remodel American Capitalism

A riveting narrative of Wall Road buccaneering, political intrigue, and two of American historical past’s most colossal characters, struggling for mastery in an period of social upheaval and rampant inequality.

It appeared like no drive on the planet may gradual J. P. Morgan’s drive to energy. In the summertime of 1901, the financier was assembling his subsequent mega-deal: Northern Securities, an enterprise that might affirm his dominance in America’s most essential industry-the railroads.

Then, a bullet from an anarchist’s gun put an finish to the business-friendly presidency of William McKinley. A brand new chief govt bounded into workplace: Theodore Roosevelt. He was satisfied that as massive enterprise obtained greater, the federal government needed to verify the affect of the wealthiest or the nation would inch ever nearer to break down. By March 1902, battle strains had been drawn: the federal government sued Northern Securities for antitrust violations. However because the case ramped up, the coal miners’ union went on strike and the anthracite pits that fueled Morgan’s trains and heated the properties of Roosevelt’s residents went silent. With tens of millions of {dollars} on the road, winter bearing down, and revolution within the air, it was a disaster that neither man alone may clear up.

Richly detailed and propulsively instructed, The Hour of Destiny is the gripping story of a banker and a president thrown collectively within the crucible of nationwide emergency at the same time as they fought in courtroom. The result of the strike and the case would change the course of our historical past. Right now, because the nation once more asks whether or not saving democracy means taming capital, the teachings of Roosevelt and Morgan’s time are extra pressing than ever.