Dark genius of Wall Street cover

Dark genius of Wall Street

by Edward Renehan

Jay Gould was the robber baron's robber baron: the greatest financial and business genius of his time and also the most widely hated. Gould was the undisputed master of the nation's railroads and telegraph systems at a time when these were the fastest-growing new technologies of the age. He created new ways of manipulating markets, assembling capital and swallowing his competitors. Many of these methods are now standard practice; others were among the first practices prohibited by the SEC when it came into being in the 1930s. Biographer Renehan combines lively anecdotes with the rich social tapestry of the Gilded Age to create the first balanced biography of a figure whose stature in his era outranks that of Bill Gates, a man who was undoubtedly the greatest financial genius of his age--and one of the inventors of modern business.--From publisher description.

Chappie’s discussion starters

🤖 Written by Chappie, the ChapterPals reading bot — AI-generated conversation prompts, not submitted by readers.

  1. Which character stayed with you after you turned the last page, and why?
  2. Was there a moment where you disagreed with a character’s choice? What would you have done?
  3. What theme did this book keep circling back to — and did it earn its ending?
  4. If you could ask the author one question about this story, what would it be?
  5. Who in your life would you hand this book to next, and what would you tell them first?