100 Years of Wall Street Book

A fairly light read, given it's a history of Amercia's stock trading, which for me doesn't really ever sound like light reading. I found it informative, but it's not really my scene, so I wasn't really enthralled. I found the first few chapters interesting, up to around 50s, then my interest kind of waned more & more as it went on.

Some of the photos were alright, & they were all captioned nicely, but a lot of it seemed pretty generic (& I don't mean in a 'general' way, which would be more acceptable in a book like this). I also felt the book was kind of biased... it would be hard for me to explain why. I guess I'm just biased against Wall Street in the first place (& indeed, the book shows very clearly - from the very beginning - the scene has been scandal after scandal after scandal, & every now & then a reform comes around, but it just leads to different breeds of scandal, all involving the little fish losing) & the book seems very pro-Wall Street, pro-America. Also, being 2016 now & the book coming out in 2000 (pre-true-digital age, pre-9/11, etc.) was a bit of a bummer. I mean, 100 years - it doesn't change what happened then. But it's just a title, anyway - it starts its tale before 1900.

Those are all my criticisms out of the way. Ultimately, given its brevity, its a worthwhile read, & really helps paint an overall picture for someone like me who... well... pictured 1929 as a great depression & the 50s as a dapper, happy-go-lucky time with cigars, & the 80s as Wall Street the movie... all pictures which were true.... but, it fills in some blanks.