-
White Shoe
- How a New Breed of Wall Street Lawyers Changed Big Business and the American Century
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Publisher's summary
The fascinating true story of how a group of visionary attorneys helped make American business synonymous with big business and Wall Street the center of the financial world.
“Entertaining.” (The Wall Street Journal)
“Fast-paced history.” (Library Journal)
“Insightful and revealing."(Kirkus)
“Captivating.” (BookPage)
The legal profession once operated on a smaller scale - folksy lawyers arguing for fairness and justice before a judge and jury. But by the year 1900, a new type of lawyer was born, one who understood business as well as the law. Working hand in glove with their clients, over the next two decades, these New York City “white shoe” lawyers devised and implemented legal strategies that would drive the business world throughout the 20th century. These lawyers were architects of the monopolistic new corporations so despised by many and acted as guardians who helped the kings of industry fend off government overreaching. Yet they also quietly steered their robber-baron clients away from a “public be damned” attitude toward more enlightened corporate behavior during a period of progressive, turbulent change in America.
Author John Oller, himself a former Wall Street lawyer, gives us a richly written glimpse of turn-of-the-century New York, from the grandeur of private mansions and elegant hotels and the city’s early skyscrapers and transportation systems, to the depths of its deplorable tenement housing conditions. Some of the biggest names of the era are featured, including business titans J. P. Morgan and John D. Rockefeller, lawyer-statesmen Elihu Root and Charles Evans Hughes, and presidents Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and Woodrow Wilson.
Among the colorful, high-powered lawyers vividly portrayed, White Shoe focuses on three: Paul Cravath, who guided his client George Westinghouse in his war against Thomas Edison and launched a new model of law-firm management - the “Cravath system”; Frank Stetson, the “attorney general” for financier J. P. Morgan who fiercely defended against government lawsuits to break up Morgan’s business empires; and William Nelson Cromwell, the lawyer “who taught the robber barons how to rob” and was best known for his instrumental role in creating the Panama Canal.
In White Shoe, the story of this small but influential band of Wall Street lawyers who created big business is fully told for the first time.
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Fund
- Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend
- By: Rob Copeland
- Narrated by: Rob Copeland, Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ray Dalio does not want you to listen to this audiobook. Late last year, when the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund on the planet, announced that he was stepping down from the company he started out of his apartment nearly 50 years ago, the news made headlines around the world. Dalio cultivated an aura of international admiration and fame thanks to his company’s eye-popping success, coupled with a mystique he encouraged with frequent media appearances, celebrity hobnobbing, and his bestselling book, Principles.
-
-
Best finance book I've read in years
- By Aaron on 12-16-23
By: Rob Copeland
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
Elon Musk
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Walter Isaacson
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
-
-
megalomania on display
- By JP on 09-12-23
By: Walter Isaacson
-
The House of Morgan
- An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P.Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece.
-
-
The construction of the House of Morgan
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-18
By: Ron Chernow
-
Den of Thieves
- By: James B. Stewart
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize winner James B. Stewart shows for the first time how four of the biggest names on Wall Street - Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine - created the greatest insider-trading ring in financial history and almost walked away with billions - until a team of downtrodden detectives triumphed over some of America's most expensive lawyers to bring this powerful quartet to justice.
-
-
Awesome book
- By Lars Tackmann on 10-23-17
By: James B. Stewart
-
Servants of the Damned
- Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice
- By: David Enrich
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times’s Business Investigations Editor and #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers comes a long-overdue exposé of the astonishing yet shadowy power wielded by the world’s largest law firms, following the narrative arc of Jones Day, the firm that represented the Trump campaign and much of the Fortune 500, as a powerful encapsulation of the changes that have swept the legal industry in recent decades.
-
-
Best book of its kind by far
- By Kathleen on 12-19-22
By: David Enrich
-
The Fund
- Ray Dalio, Bridgewater Associates, and the Unraveling of a Wall Street Legend
- By: Rob Copeland
- Narrated by: Rob Copeland, Will Damron
- Length: 12 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ray Dalio does not want you to listen to this audiobook. Late last year, when the billionaire founder of Bridgewater Associates, the largest hedge fund on the planet, announced that he was stepping down from the company he started out of his apartment nearly 50 years ago, the news made headlines around the world. Dalio cultivated an aura of international admiration and fame thanks to his company’s eye-popping success, coupled with a mystique he encouraged with frequent media appearances, celebrity hobnobbing, and his bestselling book, Principles.
-
-
Best finance book I've read in years
- By Aaron on 12-16-23
By: Rob Copeland
-
Going Infinite
- The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon
- By: Michael Lewis
- Narrated by: Michael Lewis
- Length: 9 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities, and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side?
-
-
really expected more rigor from Michael Lewis
- By Wowhello on 10-04-23
By: Michael Lewis
-
Elon Musk
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Walter Isaacson
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
-
-
megalomania on display
- By JP on 09-12-23
By: Walter Isaacson
-
The House of Morgan
- An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P.Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece.
-
-
The construction of the House of Morgan
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-18
By: Ron Chernow
-
Den of Thieves
- By: James B. Stewart
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Pulitzer Prize winner James B. Stewart shows for the first time how four of the biggest names on Wall Street - Michael Milken, Ivan Boesky, Martin Siegel, and Dennis Levine - created the greatest insider-trading ring in financial history and almost walked away with billions - until a team of downtrodden detectives triumphed over some of America's most expensive lawyers to bring this powerful quartet to justice.
-
-
Awesome book
- By Lars Tackmann on 10-23-17
By: James B. Stewart
-
Servants of the Damned
- Giant Law Firms, Donald Trump, and the Corruption of Justice
- By: David Enrich
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From the New York Times’s Business Investigations Editor and #1 bestselling author of Dark Towers comes a long-overdue exposé of the astonishing yet shadowy power wielded by the world’s largest law firms, following the narrative arc of Jones Day, the firm that represented the Trump campaign and much of the Fortune 500, as a powerful encapsulation of the changes that have swept the legal industry in recent decades.
-
-
Best book of its kind by far
- By Kathleen on 12-19-22
By: David Enrich
-
Number Go Up
- Inside Crypto's Wild Rise and Staggering Fall
- By: Zeke Faux
- Narrated by: Dan Bittner
- Length: 9 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2021 cryptocurrency went mainstream. Giant investment funds were buying it, celebrities like Tom Brady endorsed it, and TV ads hailed it as the future of money. Hardly anyone knew how it worked—but why bother with the particulars when everyone was making a fortune from Dogecoin, Shiba Inu, or some other bizarrely named “digital asset”? As he observed this frenzy, investigative reporter Zeke Faux had a nagging question: Was it all just a confidence game of epic proportions? What started as curiosity—with a dash of FOMO—would morph into a two-year globe-spanning quest.
-
-
Phenomenal story
- By Michael on 10-05-23
By: Zeke Faux
-
Billion Dollar Whale
- By: Bradley Hope, Tom Wright
- Narrated by: Will Collyer
- Length: 12 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Now a number-one international best seller, Billion Dollar Whale is "an epic tale of white-collar crime on a global scale" (Publishers Weekly), revealing how a young social climber from Malaysia pulled off one of the biggest heists in history. In 2009, a chubby, mild-mannered graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business named Jho Low set in motion a fraud of unprecedented gall and magnitude—one that would come to symbolize the next great threat to the global financial system.
-
-
Couldn’t stop listening!
- By N Lane on 10-05-18
By: Bradley Hope, and others
-
The Power Law
- Venture Capital and the Making of the New Future
- By: Sebastian Mallaby
- Narrated by: Will Damron
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Innovations rarely come from “experts.” Elon Musk was not an “electric car person” before he started Tesla. When it comes to improbable innovations, a legendary tech VC told Sebastian Mallaby, the future cannot be predicted, it can only be discovered. It is the nature of the venture-capital game that most attempts at discovery fail, but a very few succeed at such a scale that they more than make up for everything else. That extreme ratio of success and failure is the power law that drives the VC business, all of Silicon Valley, the wider tech sector, and, by extension, the world.
-
-
An Excellent Modern History Book
- By BikerDave on 05-06-24
-
Barbarians at the Gate
- The Fall of RJR Nabisco
- By: Bryan Burrough, John Helyar
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
- Length: 22 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A number-one New York Times best seller and arguably the best business narrative ever written, Barbarians at the Gate is the classic account of the fall of RJR Nabisco. An enduring masterpiece of investigative journalism by Bryan Burrough and John Helyar, it includes a new afterword by the authors that brings this remarkable story of greed and double-dealings up to date 20 years after the famed deal.
-
-
Good book but too dense
- By Andrew M. on 08-01-21
By: Bryan Burrough, and others
-
Worse than Nothing
- The Dangerous Fallacy of Originalism
- By: Erwin Chemerinsky
- Narrated by: Daniel Henning
- Length: 7 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Originalism, the view that the meaning of a constitutional provision is fixed when it is adopted, was once the fringe theory of a few extremely conservative legal scholars but is now a well-accepted mode of constitutional interpretation. Noted legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky gives a comprehensive analysis of the problems that make originalism unworkable as a method of constitutional interpretation. He argues that the framers themselves never intended constitutional interpretation to be inflexible and shows how it is often impossible to know the "original intent" of any provision.
-
-
Impeccably Logical, Backed by 100 Specific Example
- By Amy Eaton on 03-17-23
-
Chip War
- The Quest to Dominate the World's Most Critical Technology
- By: Chris Miller
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
You may be surprised to learn that microchips are the new oil—the scarce resource on which the modern world depends. Today, military, economic, and geopolitical power are built on a foundation of computer chips. Virtually everything—from missiles to microwaves—runs on chips, including cars, smartphones, the stock market, even the electric grid. Until recently, America designed and built the fastest chips and maintained its lead as the #1 superpower, but America’s edge is in danger of slipping, undermined by players in Taiwan, Korea, and Europe taking over manufacturing.
-
-
Great history, but could poor narration
- By Lily Wong on 10-26-22
By: Chris Miller
-
G-Man (Pulitzer Prize Winner)
- J. Edgar Hoover and the Making of the American Century
- By: Beverly Gage
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 36 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major new biography of J Edgar Hoover that draws from never-before-seen sources to create a groundbreaking portrait of a colossus who dominated half a century of American history and planted the seeds for much of today's conservative political landscape.
-
-
Amazing!
- By Jessica Armas on 12-06-22
By: Beverly Gage
-
The Bond King
- How One Man Made a Market, Built an Empire, and Lost It All
- By: Mary Childs
- Narrated by: Mary Childs
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Before Bill Gross was known among investors as the Bond King, he was a gambler. In 1966, a fresh college grad, he went to Vegas armed with his net worth ($200) and a knack for counting cards. Ten thousand dollars and countless casino bans later, he was hooked, so he enrolled in business school. The Bond King is the story of how that whiz kid made American finance his casino.
-
-
Being a good writer does not make you a good narrator
- By John Mallory on 05-14-22
By: Mary Childs
-
When McKinsey Comes to Town
- The Hidden Influence of the World's Most Powerful Consulting Firm
- By: Walt Bogdanich, Michael Forsythe
- Narrated by: Ari Fliakos
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In When McKinsey Comes to Town, two prizewinning investigative journalists have written a portrait of the company sharply at odds with its public image. Bogdanich and Forsythe have penetrated the veil of secrecy surrounding McKinsey by conducting hundreds of interviews, obtaining tens of thousands of revelatory documents, and following rule #1 of investigative reporting: Follow the money. When McKinsey Comes to Town is a a devastating portrait of a firm whose work has often made the world more unequal, more corrupt, and more dangerous.
-
-
Shows systemic problems in McKinsey's culture
- By GA on 10-15-22
By: Walt Bogdanich, and others
-
Louis D. Brandeis
- A Life
- By: Melvin I Urofsky
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 35 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first full-scale biography in 25 years of one of the most important and distinguished justices to sit on the Supreme Court - an audiobook that reveals Louis D. Brandeis the reformer, lawyer, and jurist, and Brandeis the man, in all of his complexity, passion, and wit. As a lawyer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he pioneered how modern law is practiced.
-
-
a Listen to Louis D. Brandeis
- By J on 07-11-10
By: Melvin I Urofsky
-
For Profit
- A History of Corporations
- By: William Magnuson
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 13 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Americans have long been skeptical of corporations, and that skepticism has only grown more intense in recent years. Meanwhile, corporations continue to amass wealth and power at a dizzying rate, recklessly pursuing profit while leaving society to sort out the costs. In For Profit, law professor William Magnuson argues that the story of the corporation didn’t have to come to this. Throughout history, he finds, corporations have been purpose-built to benefit the societies that surrounded them.
-
-
Selected stories give great explanations
- By Philo on 11-27-22
By: William Magnuson
-
The Last Honest Man
- The CIA, the FBI, the Mafia, and the Kennedys—and One Senator's Fight to Save Democracy
- By: James Risen, Thomas Risen - contributor
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 15 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Senator Frank Church of Idaho was an unlikely hero. He led congressional opposition to the Vietnam War and had become a scathing, radical critic of what he saw as American imperialism around the world. But he was still politically ambitious, privately yearning for acceptance from the foreign policy establishment that he hated and eager to run for president. Despite his flaws, Church would show historic strength in his greatest moment, when in the wake of Watergate he was suddenly tasked with investigating abuses of power in the intelligence community.
-
-
why do so many books have a liberal bias?
- By Doug Altrichter on 08-20-23
By: James Risen, and others
Critic reviews
“A valuable addition to the literature on America’s transformation during the Gilded Age.” (Publishers Weekly)
"A lucid account of the rise of the modern law firm and the concomitant rise of the modern corporation...insightful and revealing." (Kirkus)
"This fast-paced history of the period from the white shoe perspective will be both entertaining and enlightening for most readers." (Library Journal)
Related to this topic
-
Louis D. Brandeis
- A Life
- By: Melvin I Urofsky
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 35 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first full-scale biography in 25 years of one of the most important and distinguished justices to sit on the Supreme Court - an audiobook that reveals Louis D. Brandeis the reformer, lawyer, and jurist, and Brandeis the man, in all of his complexity, passion, and wit. As a lawyer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he pioneered how modern law is practiced.
-
-
a Listen to Louis D. Brandeis
- By J on 07-11-10
By: Melvin I Urofsky
-
Scorpions
- The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices
- By: Noah Feldman
- Narrated by: Cotter Smith
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They began as close allies and friends of FDR, but the quest to shape a new Constitution led them to competition and sometimes outright warfare. Scorpions tells the story of four great justices: their relationship with Roosevelt, with each other, and with the turbulent world of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. It also serves as a history of the modern Constitution itself.
-
-
A MOST HONOURABLE SWANSONG
- By Dudley H. Williams on 05-27-12
By: Noah Feldman
-
The New Deal
- A Modern History
- By: Michael Hiltzik
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As America struggles with an economic debacle akin to the Great Depression, nothing could be timelier than an authoritative account of the New Deal, masterfully written by Michael Hiltzik, author of the acclaimed history of the Hoover Dam, Colossus.
In this richly peopled, vividly rendered narrative, Hiltzik describes how the urgent short-term relief measures of Franklin Roosevelt’s Hundred Days evolved into a transformative concept of the federal role in American life.
-
-
Another Excellent New Deal History
- By R.S. on 12-19-11
By: Michael Hiltzik
-
John Marshall
- The Man Who Made the Supreme Court
- By: Richard Brookhiser
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The life of John Marshall, founding father and America's premier chief justice. In 1801, a genial and brilliant Revolutionary War veteran and politician became the fourth chief justice of the US. He would hold the post for 34 years (still a record), expounding the Constitution he loved. Before he joined the Court, it was the weakling of the federal government, lacking in dignity and clout. After he died, it could never be ignored again.
-
-
Excellent Biography
- By Jean on 12-14-18
-
The Hellhound of Wall Street
- How Ferdinand Pecora's Investigation of the Great Crash Forever Changed American Finance
- By: Michael Perino
- Narrated by: George K. Wilson
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Hellhound of Wall Street, Michael Perino recounts in riveting detail the 1933 hearings that put Wall Street on trial for the Great Crash. Never before in American history had so many financial titans been called to account before the public, and they had come within a few weeks of emerging unscathed. By the time Ferdinand Pecora, a Sicilian immigrant and former New York prosecutor, took over as chief counsel, the investigation had dragged on ineffectively for nearly a year and was universally written off as dead....
-
-
Great Story
- By Lynn on 03-22-11
By: Michael Perino
-
Coolidge: An American Enigma
- By: Robert Sobel
- Narrated by: Charles Bice
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sobel instead exposes the real Coolidge, whose legacy as the most Jeffersonian of all twentieth-century presidents still reverberates today. Sobel delves into the record to show how Coolidge cut taxes four times, had a budget surplus every year in office, and cut the national debt by a third in a period of unprecedented economic growth.
-
-
A Book Exciting As It's Subject!!!
- By Ted on 08-28-12
By: Robert Sobel
-
Louis D. Brandeis
- A Life
- By: Melvin I Urofsky
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 35 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first full-scale biography in 25 years of one of the most important and distinguished justices to sit on the Supreme Court - an audiobook that reveals Louis D. Brandeis the reformer, lawyer, and jurist, and Brandeis the man, in all of his complexity, passion, and wit. As a lawyer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he pioneered how modern law is practiced.
-
-
a Listen to Louis D. Brandeis
- By J on 07-11-10
By: Melvin I Urofsky
-
Scorpions
- The Battles and Triumphs of FDR's Great Supreme Court Justices
- By: Noah Feldman
- Narrated by: Cotter Smith
- Length: 14 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
They began as close allies and friends of FDR, but the quest to shape a new Constitution led them to competition and sometimes outright warfare. Scorpions tells the story of four great justices: their relationship with Roosevelt, with each other, and with the turbulent world of the Great Depression, World War II, and the Cold War. It also serves as a history of the modern Constitution itself.
-
-
A MOST HONOURABLE SWANSONG
- By Dudley H. Williams on 05-27-12
By: Noah Feldman
-
The New Deal
- A Modern History
- By: Michael Hiltzik
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As America struggles with an economic debacle akin to the Great Depression, nothing could be timelier than an authoritative account of the New Deal, masterfully written by Michael Hiltzik, author of the acclaimed history of the Hoover Dam, Colossus.
In this richly peopled, vividly rendered narrative, Hiltzik describes how the urgent short-term relief measures of Franklin Roosevelt’s Hundred Days evolved into a transformative concept of the federal role in American life.
-
-
Another Excellent New Deal History
- By R.S. on 12-19-11
By: Michael Hiltzik
-
John Marshall
- The Man Who Made the Supreme Court
- By: Richard Brookhiser
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The life of John Marshall, founding father and America's premier chief justice. In 1801, a genial and brilliant Revolutionary War veteran and politician became the fourth chief justice of the US. He would hold the post for 34 years (still a record), expounding the Constitution he loved. Before he joined the Court, it was the weakling of the federal government, lacking in dignity and clout. After he died, it could never be ignored again.
-
-
Excellent Biography
- By Jean on 12-14-18
-
The Hellhound of Wall Street
- How Ferdinand Pecora's Investigation of the Great Crash Forever Changed American Finance
- By: Michael Perino
- Narrated by: George K. Wilson
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In The Hellhound of Wall Street, Michael Perino recounts in riveting detail the 1933 hearings that put Wall Street on trial for the Great Crash. Never before in American history had so many financial titans been called to account before the public, and they had come within a few weeks of emerging unscathed. By the time Ferdinand Pecora, a Sicilian immigrant and former New York prosecutor, took over as chief counsel, the investigation had dragged on ineffectively for nearly a year and was universally written off as dead....
-
-
Great Story
- By Lynn on 03-22-11
By: Michael Perino
-
Coolidge: An American Enigma
- By: Robert Sobel
- Narrated by: Charles Bice
- Length: 16 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sobel instead exposes the real Coolidge, whose legacy as the most Jeffersonian of all twentieth-century presidents still reverberates today. Sobel delves into the record to show how Coolidge cut taxes four times, had a budget surplus every year in office, and cut the national debt by a third in a period of unprecedented economic growth.
-
-
A Book Exciting As It's Subject!!!
- By Ted on 08-28-12
By: Robert Sobel
-
America's Bank
- The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve
- By: Roger Lowenstein
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A tour de force of historical reportage, America’s Bank illuminates the tumultuous era and remarkable personalities that spurred the unlikely birth of America’s modern central bank, the Federal Reserve. Today, the Fed is the bedrock of the financial landscape, yet the fight to create it was so protracted and divisive that it seems a small miracle that it was ever established. For nearly a century, America, alone among developed nations, refused to consider any central or organizing agency in its financial system.
-
-
Important and Intriguing
- By Jean on 11-02-15
By: Roger Lowenstein
-
Impeached
- The Trial of President Andrew Johnson and the Fight for Lincoln's Legacy
- By: David O. Stewart
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 15 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 1868 Congress impeached President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, the man who had succeeded the murdered Lincoln, bringing the nation to the brink of a second civil war. Enraged to see the freed slaves abandoned to brutal violence at the hands of their former owners, distraught that former rebels threatened to regain control of Southern state governments, and disgusted by Johnson's brawling political style, congressional Republicans seized on a legal technicality as the basis for impeachment - whether Johnson had the legal right to fire his own secretary of war, Edwin Stanton.
-
-
Highly recommended
- By Eric on 12-12-19
By: David O. Stewart
-
The Forgotten Man
- By: Amity Shlaes
- Narrated by: Terence Aselford
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's difficult today to imagine how America survived the Great Depression. Only through the stories of the common people who struggled during that era can we really understand how the nation endured. In The Forgotten Man, Amity Shlaes offers a striking reinterpretation of the Great Depression. Rejecting the old emphasis on the New Deal, she turns to the neglected and moving stories of individual Americans, and shows how they helped establish the steadfast character we developed as a nation.
-
-
a story of forgotten times
- By Debb Robinson on 10-11-07
By: Amity Shlaes
-
The Teapot Dome Scandal
- How Big Oil Bought the Harding White House
- By: Laton McCartney
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 10 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Teapot Dome scandal of the early 1920s was all about oil - hundreds of millions of dollars� worth of petroleum. When the scandal finally broke, the consequences were tremendous. President Harding's legacy was forever tarnished, while �Oil Cabinet� member Albert Fall was forced to resign and was imprisoned for a year. Others implicated in the affair suffered prison terms, commitment to mental hospitals, suicide, and even murder.
-
-
Harding's return to normalcy: corruption
- By Paul on 03-05-08
By: Laton McCartney
-
Nothing to Fear
- FDR's Inner Circle and the Hundred Days That Created Modern America
- By: Adam Cohen
- Narrated by: Norman Dietz
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nothing to Fear brings to life a fulcrum moment in American history - the tense, feverish first 100 days of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's presidency, when he and his inner circle completely reinvented the role of the federal government.
-
-
Important contribution
- By R.S. on 03-05-09
By: Adam Cohen
-
Star-Spangled Men
- America's Ten Worst Presidents
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Andy Caploe
- Length: 9 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Picking America's best presidents is easy. George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Franklin D. Roosevelt usually lead the list. But choosing the nation's worst presidents requires more thought. In Star-Spangled Men, respected presidential biographer Nathan Miller puts on display those leaders who were abject failures as chief executive. With pointed humor and a deft hand, he presents a rogues' gallery of the men who dropped the presidential ball, and sometimes their pants as well.
-
-
Entertaining and factual
- By Sean on 10-25-14
By: Nathan Miller
-
American Heritage History of the Presidents
- By: Michael R. Beschloss
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 25 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From George Washington's reluctant oath-taking through George W. Bush's leadership challenges after September 11, 2001, we view ambitious and fallible men through the new lens of the 21st century. Where did they succeed? Where did they fail? And what do we know now that we could not have known at the time?
-
-
Good but Far from Great
- By Michael on 07-11-20
-
The Supreme Court
- By: William H. Rehnquist
- Narrated by: John Pruden
- Length: 10 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Chief Justice Rehnquist's engaging writing illuminates both the high and low points in the Court's history, from Chief Justice Marshall's dominance of the Court during the early 19th century through the landmark decisions of the Warren Court. Citing cases such as the Dred Scott decision and Roosevelt's Court-packing plan, Rehnquist makes clear that the Court does not operate in a vacuum, that the justices are unavoidably influenced by their surroundings, and that their decisions have real and lasting impacts on our society.
-
-
Absorbing
- By Jean on 01-28-18
-
The Fall of the House of FIFA
- The Multimillion-Dollar Corruption at the Heart of Global Soccer
- By: David Conn
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 12 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2015, FIFA - the multibillion dollar governing body of the world's most-loved sport - was brought down by allegations of industrial-scale bribes, kickbacks, money laundering, racketeering, and tax evasion. Beginning with early morning raids in Zurich and the indictment of 27 executives by the US Department of Justice, the rottenness at the core of FIFA seemed to extend throughout all of soccer, from the decision to send the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar to lesser known cases of embezzlement from Trinidad to South Africa.
-
-
quite good
- By kevin m on 12-14-17
By: David Conn
-
Without Precedent
- Chief Justice John Marshall and His Times
- By: Joel Richard Paul
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 17 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No member of America's founding generation had a greater impact on the Constitution and the Supreme Court than John Marshall, and no one did more to preserve the delicate unity of the fledgling United States. From the nation's founding in 1776 and for the next 40 years, Marshall was at the center of every political battle. As Chief Justice of the United States - the longest-serving in history—he established the independence of the judiciary and the supremacy of the federal Constitution and courts.
-
-
Scholarly and Accessible
- By Diana Black Kennedy on 03-01-18
-
Hoover
- An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times
- By: Kenneth Whyte
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 27 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The definitive biography of Herbert Hoover, one of the most remarkable Americans of the 20th century - a revisionist account that will forever change the way Americans understand the man, his presidency, and his battle against the Great Depression. A poor orphan who built a fortune, a great humanitarian, a president elected in a landslide and then routed in the next election, arguably the father of both New Deal liberalism and modern conservatism - Herbert Hoover is also one of our least understood presidents.
-
-
What a fascinating story!
- By Dan Ryan on 11-18-17
By: Kenneth Whyte
-
The Case for Impeachment
- By: Allan J. Lichtman
- Narrated by: Dan Woren
- Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
What are the ranges and limitations of presidential authority? What are the standards of truthfulness that a president must uphold? What will it take to impeach Donald J. Trump? Professor Allan J. Lichtman, who has correctly forecasted 30 years of presidential outcomes, answers these questions, and more, in The Case for Impeachment - a deeply convincing argument for impeaching the 45th president of the United States.
-
-
Every American should read this!
- By Daniel Ballard on 04-24-17
What listeners say about White Shoe
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Victor
- 10-14-19
Highly recommended for those in legal profession
This book is of particular interest to those in the legal profession, including both attorneys and non-attorney staff members. Employees of major law firms will likely hear their employer's name and other familiar firms’ names more than once.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Brian
- 04-30-19
Great book
I guess I may be a bit biased since I am a lawyer. This book was is very interesting! I only knew about Paul Cravath from the great fiction novel, The Last Days of Night. I did know a bit about the robber barons, but not their lawyers. This book, however, is more about the Guilded Age than simply about the lawyers. Give it a try!!
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Philo
- 03-21-19
Adds sharp, telling detail to big biz-law tales
I had heard many of the big, basic stories from authors such as Ron Chernow (in the J.P. Morgan bio and Death of the Banker). These are usually business-titan-centric. So, knowing the basic contours of the history helps to really draw out the value of this piece. This story stays close to the known figures but fills out the map of all sorts of vital personalities who came from the side of strategy and getting things done, creating as they went. Sometimes this involved creating new legal structures, as William Nelson Cromwell's innovations (throwing together bankruptcy structures through constellations of deals across state lines before the law provided them, and inaugurating the holding company to get around political attacks on the infamous trusts, and more!). Here we see genius strategists, with financiers' funds behind them, stretching their thinking and tools across jurisdictions in fascinating ways.
A crucial moment in U.S. history and the dawning American century is lit here from a different, very revealing angle. J.P. Morgan is widely known as a proto-Fed, privately coordinating rescues of the banking system and the Treasury at crucial moments. Similarly, here, in the Panama Canal affair, Cromwell acts as a sort of private (but publicly connected) proto-CIA (that's me editorializing, not the author), at turns visible and invisible, shepherding a national project through the framing-up, lobbying Congress, and then apparently coordinating the revolution that carved a separate Panana out of Colombia. Finally with a few deft (and sometimes tricky) moves he saw that the desired treaties were signed and sealed, giving the U.S. effective sovereignty over the Canal Zone, and leaving many Panamanian revolutionary patriots in the lurch. In this we see a master artist at work in the Macchiavellian lawyer sense, using selective invisibility to move people and various levers all over the map. Nobody could see the whole picture and strategy except perhaps Cromwell himself. This is a master-class in these arts. Watch too as Cromwell switches clients (as well as alliances) across that story -- it is quite a tightrope walk. My CIA thought makes sense as later Sullivan and Cromwell managing partner John Foster Dulles' brother Allen, also a partner, became director of the CIA. These are big pillars of the lofty heights of power in the American Century that was to follow.
Then at moments we are back to nuts and bolts of the design of law firms. This book has an interesting reach, especially to a lawyer. But the real excellence of the book shows in its seamless movement from personalities to big ideas to events. Here is a more lucid explanation of he rise,out of the Gilded Age, of the Progressive era, in all its components such as antitrust debates and law, than I have seen anywhere. The legal side provides an amazing prism through which to comprehend topics as pertinent now as ever then. The author sometimes draws parallels between the business titans of then and the tech firms now, and the sometimes puzzling actions of the government. One can trace thinkers such as Louis Brandeis (corporate lawyer and later Supreme Court Justice) right down to the Elizabeth Warren of today. I am amazed how much these issues were fleshed out at the dawn of the 20th century.
This is a unique and favorite addition to my business-finance-law bookshelf. I was a bit hesitant at first because a few books of this type have been rather stale and starchy. But once this one gets going, it is consistently pleasing and illuminating. My knowledge of American history is appreciably improved.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful