Street of Dreams--Boulevard of Broken Hearts: Wall Street's First Century (review)

This engaging study explores the development and influence of NewYork's financial institutions from the 1790s to 1914, though with an eye to the contemporary resonance of past events. Its interdisciplinary approach draws on a variety of secondary works supplemented by archival material, primarily from the collections of the New York Historical Society. The major focus is on the changing physical forms, institutional arrangements, and cast of leading characters that constituted Wall Street, and in its best sections the result is a fascinating economic and social history of a key district. Thus, this most evocative of locations is traced from the early meetings of brokers in the Tontine Coffee House, through the rebuilt Merchants' Exchange after the fire of 1835 and the construction of the New York Stock Exchange building in the 1860s, to the Pujo hearings. Individual personalities are carefully delineated to illuminate the maneuverings of financiers and politicians.

As an integrating theme, Wachtel assesses Wall Street's shifting and often tense relationships to national politics, identified as "Pennsylvania Avenue," and to the wider society, labeled "Main Street". This perspective allows consideration of the debates about the appropriate regulatory regime, notably competing claims about the merits of self-regulation and state control. About half of the study deals with events before the Civil War, and particular attention is given to the Wall Street-related dealings of Alexander Hamilton and the contest between Andrew Jackson and Nicholas Biddle over the second Bank of the United States. Following a discussion of new approaches to bond selling during the war, Wachtel dissects the intrigues and rivalries of Cornelius Vanderbilt, Daniel Drew, and Jim Fisk. The detailed analysis ends with an evaluation of Main Street's critical reactions to J. P. Morgan's promotion of trusts during the 1890s and early 1900s, and his key role in the financial panic of 1907. Finally, there is a short sketch of subsequent regulatory arrangements.

In the main, the book offers an orthodox account of the institutional changes in the financial markets and draws on standard secondary literature to place Wall Street in its national and international context. A strength of the book lies in linking the grand narrative to local New York politics, society, and urban development, and in using local archival sources to flesh out some of the less well known figures, such as the diverse participants in the curb market. The interpretation of pre-1860 events provides the most effective exploration of the physical layout, architectural style, and reconstruction of Wall Street, and its image in contemporary paintings. Wachtel makes a good case for the significance of personal contacts and architecture intended to symbolize power and wealth.

Unfortunately, this aspect of Wall Street as location receives less attention in the chapters on the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The role of new technologies and increasing specialization is explored in terms of its impact on the parameters and practices of the major financial institutions from the mid-nineteenth century. Nevertheless, since the book highlights the bankers' recurring stress on the importance of reputation and networks of contacts, surely more attention might have been given to the buildings, physical extent, and social world of burgeoning New York's financial district between 1870 and 1914. Although the changing social world of NewYork is emphasized, fruitful links could be made to the analysis of New York's bourgeoisie in Sven Beckert's The Monied Metropolis (2001). Similarly, the discussion of changing popular and government attitudes to regulation would have benefited from the material in Thomas McCraw's Prophets of Regulation (1984). The discussion of developments after 1914 is too brief to sustain the earlier interesting analysis of location, personalities, and institutional structures.