Overview

In this groundbreaking new biography, based on more than ten thousand hitherto unavailable letters and diary entries, bestselling author Niall Ferguson returns to his roots as a financial historian to tell the story of Siegmund Warburg, an extraordinary man whose austere philosophy of finance offers much insight today. A refugee from Hitler's Germany, Warburg rose to become the dominant figure in postwar City of London and one of the architects of European financial integration. Seared by the near collapse and then Aryanization of his family's long-established bank in the 1930s and then frustrated by the stagnation of its Wall Street sister, Kuhn Loeb, in the 1950s, Warburg resolved that his own firm of S. G. Warburg (founded in 1946) would be different. An obsessive perfectionist with an aversion to excessive risk, Warburg came to embody the ideals of the haute banque--high finance--always eschewing the fast buck in favor of gilt-edged advice. He was not only the master of the modern merger and founder of the eurobond; he was also a key behind-the-scenes adviser to governments in London, Tokyo, and Jerusalem--to his critics, a financial Rasputin. Like a character from a Thomas Mann novel, Warburg was a complex and ambivalent man, as much a psychologist, politician, and actor-manager as he was a banker. In High Financier, Ferguson shares the first book-length examination of a man whose life and work suggest an alternative to the troubled business principles that helped shape our current financial landscape.

Full Product Details

9798200114290

Table of Contents

Reviews

"Ferguson brings great authority to this account.... [He] is a talented writer, capable of grace and insight, but it is his ability as a historian that shows most strongly in High Financier. ---Washington Post ""Ferguson brings great authority to this account...[He] is a talented writer, capable of grace and insight, but it is his ability as a historian that shows most strongly in High Financier."" -- ""Washington Post"" ""Ferguson draws a richly vivid portrait of this unusual banker."" -- ""New York Times"" ""Ferguson has written a most engrossing and edifying tale of high finance...Highly recommended."" -- ""Library Journal (starred review)"" ""Its many finance lessons aside, High Financier is a pleasure to [listen to] simply as a work of literary skill. It is not only prodigiously researched but also splendidly written--clear and vivid and precise."" -- ""Wall Street Journal"" ""James Langton employs a clear, clipped voice for much of the narration...This is a well-written, broadly sourced look at a brilliant financier."" -- ""AudioFile"""

Author Information

Niall Ferguson is one of Britain's most renowned historians. He is the Laurence A. Tisch Professor of History at Harvard University, a senior research fellow of the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, and a visiting professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing. He is the author of numerous books, including The Ascent of Money, a New York Times bestseller. His Kissinger, a feature-length film based on his interviews with Henry Kissinger, won the 2011 New York Film Festival prize for best documentary. His many other prizes and awards include the Benjamin Franklin Prize for Public Service, the Hayek Prize for Lifetime Achievement, and the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Economic Journalism. James Langton, an Earphones Award-winning narrator, trained as an actor at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and later as a musician at the Guildhall School in London. He has worked in radio, film, and television, also appearing in theater in England and on Broadway. He is also a professional musician who led the internationally renowned Pasadena Roof Orchestra from 1996 to 2002.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available