Book of the week: High Financier by Niall Ferguson

(Penguin Press, $35)

Niall Ferguson’s “richly vivid portrait” of British banker Siegmund Warburg documents an old-fashioned financial culture that’s “a far cry from the ethos that dominates today’s Wall Street,” said Liaquat Ahamed in The New York Times. After fleeing Nazi Germany in 1934, Warburg started a small London investment-banking firm and eventually managed to join the “inner sanctum” of British financiers. Despite their wealth and influence, bankers like Warburg “thought of themselves like family doctors” who made money by giving sound advice, not by trading.

Ferguson is known for “Big Picture, Big Idea” books, but High Financier simply “follows a solitary capitalist” as he goes about his business, said T.J. Stiles in The Washington Post. “If Warburg’s name seems unfamiliar, that is partly by design.” While Warburg was discreet, Ferguson shows that his influence was far-reaching. “When he spoke, presidents, prime ministers, and Henry Kissinger listened.”

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up