Steve Fraser's Every Man A speculator: A History of Wall Street in American Life is a fun book that provides color about the characters that have driven US financial history. Rogues may be a better word than characters, but it gives the reader a deep history about the culture and people that populated Wall Street throughout our history. Fraser is a great writer, but this history could have been shorter and more focused if it wants to reach the average reader. It is supposed to be about American life, but the focus is more directed to personalities and not about how Wall Street impacted cultural thinking. The life component is there just not always front and center. Nevertheless, the writing is memorable:
"In 1929, the raucous staccato of ten thousand ticker-tape machines had provided the jazzy accompaniment to Wall Street's fandango. Only two thousand machines were left by 1941, their rhythms slowed as the street grew quiet, almost inaudible to the American ear."
On the corporate raiders of the 80's
"...at least they worked like demons to get it, putting in inhuman hours, beginning their days at four in the morning, ending them at midnight. For them, hard work, an American sacrament, was an aphrodisiac, a living reproach to the stereotypical Wall Street banker whose day began at ten and ended at three with an intermission for a three-martini, two-hour lunch. "
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