The Monied Metropolis

New York City and the Consolidation of the American Bourgeoisie, 1850–1896

Sven Beckert author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Cambridge University Press

Published:19th Mar '01

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The Monied Metropolis cover

This book, first published in 2001, is a comprehensive history of nineteenth-century New York City's powerful economic elite.

This book, first published in 2001, is a comprehensive history of the most powerful group in the nineteenth-century United States: New York City's economic elite. By the end of the Gilded Age upper-class New Yorkers had consolidated themselves into a self-conscious social class that put their stamp on the major issues of the day.This book, first published in 2001, is a comprehensive history of the most powerful group in the nineteenth-century United States: New York City's economic elite. This small and diverse group of Americans accumulated unprecedented economic, social, and political power, and decisively put their mark on the age. Professor Beckert explores how capital-owning New Yorkers overcame their distinct antebellum identities to forge dense social networks, create powerful social institutions, and articulate an increasingly coherent view of the world and their place within it. Actively engaging in a rapidly changing economic, social, and political environment, these merchants, industrialists, bankers, and professionals metamorphosed into a social class. In the process, these upper-class New Yorkers put their stamp on the major political conflicts of the day - ranging from the Civil War to municipal elections. Employing the methods of social history, The Monied Metropolis explores the big issues of nineteenth-century social change.

'… this is, in general, a deftly told account of the Manhattan bourgeoisie's impressively shrewd negotiation of the ever-shifting terrain of the American political and economic landscape. As such, it yields thought-provoking insights into the ways in which power has been - and continues to be - acquired and exercised in the US.' Publishers Weekly
'… [an] illuminating book on the upper social reaches of Manhattan in the gilded age.' The Economist
'A fascinating history of New York during the late 19th-century, a time when big money was changing the face of the city … dazzlingly successful.' Kirkus Reviews
'… he has drawn deftly on an immense body of recent historical work on the period as well as on extensive New York archives.' William R. Taylor, washingtonpost.com
'Academic libraries supporting the most serious research in modern US urban, business, and social history will need this book for their collections, as will the major borough publics.' Library Journal
'Beckert's work is an important contribution to economic history. Mikko Hyvärinen, Scandinavian Economic History Review
'… a significant contribution to the study of the elite, corporate power and political economy, and urban history.' Business History

ISBN: 9780521790390

Dimensions: 229mm x 152mm x 29mm

Weight: 850g

514 pages