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Product Description
Describing the men who have led the U.S. Treasury since its creation in 1789, this book profiles those who have held the cabinet position of Secretary of the Treasury from Alexander Hamilton to Robert Rubin. Each profile provides the reader with an understanding of the man, the problems he faced, and the contributions he made. While focusing on the economic policy problems of an era and the solutions the secretary offered, each profile also includes a vignette illustrating the secretary's personality and background. Some represent backgrounds of money and power, others backgrounds of simplicity and anonymity. Some came to the office with greater stature than when they left, while others made a significant mark on our nation's financial history. Alexander Hamilton, the first Secretary of the Treasury, besides collecting and dispersing the public revenue, made the Treasury a prime agency for promoting the country's economic development and fiscal soundness. Since the Great Depression, the Treasury's regulatory functions have been articulated and elaborated. Working with the President's cabinet and with maximum statistical data, the secretaries have sought to analyze the economic outlook and to coordinate official actions, including policies to maintain a strong and stable U.S. dollar. The essays in this book, written by 24 authorities, illustrate how the Secretary of the Treasury is responsible for formulating and recommending domestic and international financial, economic, and tax policy, participating in the formulation of broad fiscal policies with general significance for the economy, and managing the public debt. The biographies illustrate continuing themes of fiscal management as our nation evolved over 200 stormy years of history. They also provide an intimate look at 69 individual secretaries, with stories and facts about their leadership, ideas, style, and administrative prowess, together with their personality and family lives.
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:
If you love the Secretary of the Treasury ...., 2005-09-28
If you love the Secretary of the Treasury (the position, not necessarily the man) then you'll love this book. This book is organized like a dictionary (duh) with alphabetical entries for each SoT. Everybody gets a 5-10 page bio written mostly by academic historians and economists (with a couple of banker types thrown in). There are around 25 different contributors, so the essays do vary a bit in emphasis and style, but overall the dictionary is a nice, cohesive piece of research. There's a chronological list of the SoT's up front so you can follow the office through time if you so desire.
I bought the book because I'm interested in the history of the Treasury Department. But the odd thing is -- the book is actually pretty interesting just as a history of the United States. Each short essay ends up focusing on a discrete time period and manages to capture many of the political and economic issues of the time. For example, good ol' Salmon P. Chase who was Lincoln's first SoT saw lots of interesting stuff during his career. Originally an officer of state bank, at Treasury he made recommendations for a national banking system (which was really more about establishing a stable currency and selling Treasury bonds than about regulating banks) that was the basis for the National Bank Act. Feeling rather cocky after that success, he ran against Lincoln for the Republican Presidential nomination, was quickly branded a traitor and lost out early. He came back to campaign for Lincoln, though, and as a reward he was made Chief Justice of the United States. In that capacity he oversaw the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson. That's the kind of stuff any history buff would enjoy.
The big weakness in the book is the lack of pictures or portraits. How do we know what these old codgers looked like? And the book only goes through Rubin. Come one guys, how about a pocket part update? Wouldn't the entry on O'Neill be worth it?
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