American Colossus The Triumph Of Capitalism Summary

In American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865 - 1900, H.W. Brands worked to write a book that illustrates the decades after the Civil War, focusing on Morgan and his fellow capitalists who effected a stunning transformation of American life. Brands focuses on the threat of capitalism in American democracy. The broader implications of focusing on capitalism in American democracy is the book becomes a frame work based on a contest between democracy and capitalism. He explains democracy depends on equality, whereas, capitalism depends on inequality (5). The constant changing of the classes as new technologies and ways of life arise affect the contest between democracy and capitalism. By providing a base argument and the implications of

He states that the financial system was based on competing state banks with no central bank which promoted a rapid economic growth. As the American banking system developed the money supply developed with it. The federal government began the banking system through the issuing of specie but as the capitalist system developed the banking structure developed as well. During the Civil War, the North printed Greenbacks that drove gold from the domestic circulation to help pay for war necessities. The Greenbacks, however, were rarely used in the South expressing the different economies of the North and the South at the time of the Civil War. With differing economies and the growth of specie and paper money, Brands argues that the basis of knowledge about the money system of this time lays a foundation for how Carnegie, Rockefeller, and others were able to manipulate the market and gain wealth. Leading into price manipulation by those in corporate

An example of this was when Brands talked about the political parties in part four: the finest money government can buy. In chapter twelve of part four he talks about Roosevelt choosing the Republican Party and about Tweed who was involved in the Democratic Party. Brands talked about their influence within each party in regards to those who were placed on the ballot. He then connects this information to chapter fourteen of part four which talks about the different problems and success within each party. Both chapters talk of political parties but they refer to distinctive parts and people that all tie back to the section topic and the argument. He does this again in part two: frontiers of enterprise. In chapter eight of part two he discusses two different enterprises that did not occur in the same time period but both affected a large number of people who were wealthy and poor. The enterprises were the Union Pacific Railroad company and the industry that was created when the South was being rebuilt. The connections made allows readers to create a mental timeline of events in history that impacted the growth of capitalism which affected the American democratic