America's Bank
America’s Bank illuminates the tumultuous era and remarkable personalities that spurred the unlikely birth of America’s modern central bank, the Federal Reserve. It tells the drama-laden story of how America created the Federal Reserve, thereby taking its first steps onto the world stage as a global financial power. America’s Bank brings the beginnings of one of the country’s most crucial institutions to vivid and unforgettable life. Readers of this gripping historical narrative will wonder whether they’re reading about one hundred years ago or the still-seething conflicts that mark our discussions of banking and politics today.
“As Roger Lowenstein tells it in ‘America’s Bank,’ an illuminating history of the Fed’s unlikely origin story, the central Bank represented an ambitious — and not entirely successful — effort to resolve several long-standing tensions that lay at the heart of the American experiment in self-government: East Coast vs. the interior, urban sensibilities vs. rural ones, mercantile vs. agrarian interests, Wall Street vs. Main Street. It is still working out the kinks.”
— Washington Post
“The fun of the book — and its enduring value — lies in the rich details about the cranks, pawns and prophets who jousted with one another in the days of Teddy Roosevelt, William Taft and Woodrow Wilson.”
— Forbes
“Roger Lowenstein tells, vividly and compellingly,…the remarkable tale of the politics, disagreements, decisions and crises that culminated in the Federal Reserve Act…But Lowenstein, the author of several works on economics and finance, builds off it to describe the history of the era, the rise of the Progressive movement, the compromises and machinations that were critical to Congressional passage and the key figures in the drama of creating the Federal Reserve System.”
— Robert Rubin, New York Times Book Review
“Depicting the effort to create a central bank, Fortune contributor Lowenstein tells a gripping tale with a trove of vivid characters and period details; you can almost see the handlebar mustaches and smell the oyster stuffing. And the broader cultural conflicts he describes—-distrust of centralized authority, tension between Main Street and Wall Street—are just as relevant now as they were in the era of Taft, Teddy, and Woodrow Wilson.”
“Important and intriguing ….Lowenstein skillfully shows the connections between past and current events…. Readers seeking a comprehensive history of the Federal Reserve from its conception to modern times will find this work especially appealing.”
— Library Journal
“America’s Bank, Roger Lowenstein’s lively account of the creation of the Federal Reserve in 1913, resonates today as we debate the conduct of monetary policy and financial regulation. Washington against the Bankers, central authority against dispersed decision-making, rules against discretion, independence against accountability – it was all there, a century ago, resolved by political ingenuity into compromises that have stood the test of time.”
— Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve
“A highly engaging historical account of the personalities and politics behind the creation of the Federal Reserve.”
— Ben Bernanke, former chairman of the Federal Reserve
“The birth of the Federal Reserve is a fascinating and almost unknown story, with lessons even for today. In the hands of a master storyteller like Roger Lowenstein, it is also a page-turner."
— Alan S. Blinder, American economist and the author of After the Music Stopped: The Financial Crisis, the Response, and the Work Ahead