An enthralling account of an economic revolution that emerged from a scandal.
The story of government debt finance, which sounds boring but definitely isn’t.
Science writer and MIT professor Levenson reminds readers that rulers throughout history have taxed citizens to pay bills. During wars, this proved insufficient, so they borrowed from rich people and often didn’t pay it back. As a result, governments paid higher interest than private borrowers and sometimes found no lenders. Alternatives such as seizing church money created other difficulties, but unpaid soldiers wreaked havoc. Britain solved this problem around 1700 when clever men invented the joint-stock company, which would exchange government bonds for stock in their business. The bonds were collateral for loans that the company would invest, make a profit, and pay dividends. What could go wrong? Succeeding in business takes time and expertise, but joint-stock shares had value immediately. One could profit trading them, and savvy company owners, with insider knowledge (not then illegal) and a printing press, went to town. Levenson’s fascinating subject, the South-Sea Company, was not the first but the most memorable. In 1711, Parliament approved a plan to trade its bonds for South-Sea stock, which they believed would skyrocket because the company possessed exclusive trade rights in South America. This trade never amounted to much, but few paid attention. The company absorbed a great deal of government debt and satisfied both owners and shareholders until 1720, when—for reasons no one, including the author, can explain—stock prices shot upward during a buying frenzy and then collapsed. While historians often portray this as a scam, Levenson points out that it worked. Despite recriminations following the crash, British leaders understood that issuing bonds that buyers could trade or use as collateral was a superb way to borrow. Other nations did not catch on for another century, during which time Britain’s ability to raise immense quantities of money allowed it to “punch above its weight class” in wars against far more populous and wealthy nations.
An enthralling account of an economic revolution that emerged from a scandal.Pub Date: Aug. 18, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-8129-9846-7
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: May 9, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2020
HISTORY | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | BUSINESS | MODERN | WORLD | ECONOMICS | GENERAL BUSINESS
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.
Greed, depravity, and serial murder in 1920s Oklahoma.
During that time, enrolled members of the Osage Indian nation were among the wealthiest people per capita in the world. The rich oil fields beneath their reservation brought millions of dollars into the tribe annually, distributed to tribal members holding "headrights" that could not be bought or sold but only inherited. This vast wealth attracted the attention of unscrupulous whites who found ways to divert it to themselves by marrying Osage women or by having Osage declared legally incompetent so the whites could fleece them through the administration of their estates. For some, however, these deceptive tactics were not enough, and a plague of violent death—by shooting, poison, orchestrated automobile accident, and bombing—began to decimate the Osage in what they came to call the "Reign of Terror." Corrupt and incompetent law enforcement and judicial systems ensured that the perpetrators were never found or punished until the young J. Edgar Hoover saw cracking these cases as a means of burnishing the reputation of the newly professionalized FBI. Bestselling New Yorkerstaff writer Grann (The Devil and Sherlock Holmes: Tales of Murder, Madness, and Obsession, 2010, etc.) follows Special Agent Tom White and his assistants as they track the killers of one extended Osage family through a closed local culture of greed, bigotry, and lies in pursuit of protection for the survivors and justice for the dead. But he doesn't stop there; relying almost entirely on primary and unpublished sources, the author goes on to expose a web of conspiracy and corruption that extended far wider than even the FBI ever suspected. This page-turner surges forward with the pacing of a true-crime thriller, elevated by Grann's crisp and evocative prose and enhanced by dozens of period photographs.
Dogged original research and superb narrative skills come together in this gripping account of pitiless evil.Pub Date: April 18, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-385-53424-6
Page Count: 352
Publisher: Doubleday
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2017
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2017
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
BOOK TO SCREEN
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.
A coffee-table book celebrates Michelle Obama’s sense of fashion.
Illustrated with hundreds of full-color photographs, Obama’s chatty latest book begins with some school portraits from the author’s childhood in Chicago and fond memories of back-to-school shopping at Sears, then jumps into the intricacies of clothing oneself as the spouse of a presidential candidate and as the first lady. “People looked forward to the outfits, and once I got their attention, they listened to what I had to say. This is the soft power of fashion,” she says. Obama is grateful and frank about all the help she got along the way, and the volume includes a long section written by her primary wardrobe stylist, Koop—28 years old when she first took the job—and shorter sections by makeup artists and several hair stylists, who worked with wigs and hair extensions as Obama transitioned back to her natural hair, and grew out her bangs, at the end of her husband’s second term. Many of the designers of the author’s gowns, notably Jason Wu, who designed several of her more striking outfits, also contribute appreciative memories. Besides candid and more formal photographs, the volume features many sketches of her gowns by their designers, closeups on details of those gowns, and magazine covers from Better Homes & Gardens to Vogue. The author writes that as a Black woman, “I was under a particularly white-hot glare, constantly appraised for whether my outfits were ‘acceptable’ and ‘appropriate,’ the color of my skin somehow inviting even more judgment than the color of my dresses.” Overall, though, this is generally a canny, upbeat volume, with little in the way of surprising revelations.
Not so deep, but a delightful tip of the hat to the pleasures—and power—of glamour.Pub Date: Nov. 4, 2025
ISBN: 9780593800706
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Crown
Review Posted Online: Nov. 7, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2026
SEEN & HEARD
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