Reading the Market

Genres of Financial Capitalism in Gilded Age America

Business & Finance, Business Reference, Government & Business, Nonfiction, History, Americas, United States
Cover of the book Reading the Market by Peter Knight, Johns Hopkins University Press
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Peter Knight ISBN: 9781421420615
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press Publication: September 1, 2016
Imprint: Language: English
Author: Peter Knight
ISBN: 9781421420615
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
Publication: September 1, 2016
Imprint:
Language: English

Americans pay famously close attention to "the market," obsessively watching trends, patterns, and swings and looking for clues in every fluctuation. In Reading the Market, Peter Knight explores the Gilded Age origins and development of this peculiar interest. He tracks the historic shift in market operations from local to national while examining how present-day ideas about the nature of markets are tied to past genres of financial representation.

Drawing on the late nineteenth-century explosion of art, literature, and media, which sought to dramatize the workings of the stock market for a wide audience, Knight shows how ordinary Americans became both emotionally and financially invested in the market. He analyzes popular investment manuals, brokers’ newsletters, newspaper columns, magazine articles, illustrations, and cartoons. He also introduces readers to fiction featuring financial tricksters, which was characterized by themes of personal trust and insider information. The book reveals how the popular culture of the period shaped the very idea of the market as a self-regulating mechanism by making the impersonal abstractions of high finance personal and concrete.

From the rise of ticker-tape technology to the development of conspiracy theories, Reading the Market argues that commentary on the Stock Exchange between 1870 and 1915 changed how Americans understood finance—and explains what our pervasive interest in Wall Street says about us now.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Americans pay famously close attention to "the market," obsessively watching trends, patterns, and swings and looking for clues in every fluctuation. In Reading the Market, Peter Knight explores the Gilded Age origins and development of this peculiar interest. He tracks the historic shift in market operations from local to national while examining how present-day ideas about the nature of markets are tied to past genres of financial representation.

Drawing on the late nineteenth-century explosion of art, literature, and media, which sought to dramatize the workings of the stock market for a wide audience, Knight shows how ordinary Americans became both emotionally and financially invested in the market. He analyzes popular investment manuals, brokers’ newsletters, newspaper columns, magazine articles, illustrations, and cartoons. He also introduces readers to fiction featuring financial tricksters, which was characterized by themes of personal trust and insider information. The book reveals how the popular culture of the period shaped the very idea of the market as a self-regulating mechanism by making the impersonal abstractions of high finance personal and concrete.

From the rise of ticker-tape technology to the development of conspiracy theories, Reading the Market argues that commentary on the Stock Exchange between 1870 and 1915 changed how Americans understood finance—and explains what our pervasive interest in Wall Street says about us now.

More books from Johns Hopkins University Press

Cover of the book Courtrooms and Classrooms by Peter Knight
Cover of the book Unconscious Crime by Peter Knight
Cover of the book Disease and Discovery by Peter Knight
Cover of the book The Johns Hopkins Guide to Psychological First Aid by Peter Knight
Cover of the book Success on the Tenure Track by Peter Knight
Cover of the book Palace of Ashes by Peter Knight
Cover of the book The Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 by Peter Knight
Cover of the book Leaving without Losing by Peter Knight
Cover of the book The Collected Poetry of Mary Tighe by Peter Knight
Cover of the book Bad Logic by Peter Knight
Cover of the book The Second Seminole War and the Limits of American Aggression by Peter Knight
Cover of the book Field Guide to the Natural World of New York City by Peter Knight
Cover of the book Political Philosophy and the God of Abraham by Peter Knight
Cover of the book Pennsylvania Germans by Peter Knight
Cover of the book The Physicist's World by Peter Knight
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy