Inside Money

Brown Brothers Harriman and the American Way of Power

By: Zachary Karabell

Narrated by: Zachary Karabell

Length: 17 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's summary

A sweeping history of the legendary private investment firm Brown Brothers Harriman, exploring its central role in the story of American wealth and its rise to global power

Conspiracy theories have always swirled around Brown Brothers Harriman, and not without reason. Throughout the 19th century, when America was convulsed by a devastating financial panic essentially every 20 years, Brown Brothers quietly went from strength to strength, propping up the US financial system at crucial moments and catalyzing successive booms, from the cotton trade and the steamship to the railroad, while largely managing to avoid the unwelcome attention that plagued some of its competitors. By the turn of the 20th century, Brown Brothers was unquestionably at the heart of what was meant by an American Establishment. As America's reach extended beyond its shores, Brown Brothers worked hand-in-glove with the State Department, notably in Nicaragua in the early 20th century, where the firm essentially took over the country's economy. To the Brown family, the virtue of their dealings was a given; their form of muscular Protestantism, forged on the playing fields of Groton and Yale, was the acme of civilization, and it was their duty to import that civilization to the world. When, during the Great Depression, Brown Brothers ensured their strength by merging with Averell Harriman's investment bank to form Brown Brothers Harriman, the die was cast for the role the firm would play on the global stage during World War II and thereafter, as its partners served at the highest levels of government to shape the international system that defines the world to this day.

In Inside Money, acclaimed historian, commentator, and former financial executive Zachary Karabell offers the first full and frank look inside this institution against the backdrop of American history. Blessed with complete access to the company's archives, as well as a thrilling understanding of the larger forces at play, Karabell has created an X-ray of American power - financial, political, cultural - as it has evolved from the early 1800s to the present. Today, unlike many of its competitors, Brown Brothers Harriman remains a private partnership and a beacon of sustainable capitalism, having forgone the heady speculative upsides of the past 30 years but also having avoided any role in the devastating downsides. The firm is no longer in the command capsule of the American economy, but, arguably, that is to its credit. If its partners cleaved to any one adage over the generations, it is that a relentless pursuit of more can destroy more than it creates.

©2020 Zachary Karabell (P)2020 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Powerful.... There is something quietly stirring in the tale of Alexander Brown, a Belfast linen merchant who emigrated to Baltimore in 1800, and together with his four sons became, first, a major linen importer, then a dealer in cotton, coffee, copper, iron and sugar, then a financier. Karabell, the author of several books on business and history, uses Brown Brothers as a lens into the nation’s growth.... His narrative of a firm that remained private and true to its credo is engaging and new.” (New York Times Book Review)

“An engaging history.... Karabell, who has worked in banking himself, tells a brisk and muscular story.” (Robert Armstrong, The Financial Times)

“Karabell tells the tale with vigour, bringing the leading characters to life while locating their exploits in America’s broader economic and political history. He does not shy away from darker episodes, acknowledging the cotton traders’ dependence on the labour of slaves, and exposing the casual antisemitism of some partners.” (Reuters)