The Gold Ring: Jim Fisk, Jay Gould, and Black Friday, 1869

The other day I was going through boxes of books that had been placed in storage since I moved to South Carolina. What a surprise to find The Gold Ring among its contents. Apparently I had purchased this book when it first came out in 1989, and for some reason it had gone unread for almsot 20 years. What a timely book to read, as we enter gosh knows what month of our current recession. This book gives a fantastic account of the manipulations of Jay Gould and Jim Fisk who began as small time operators working for the Erie Railroad in its war with Cornelius Vanderbilt, and who managed to escape jail and ended up befriending Boss Tweed of Tamminy Hall fame. One thing leads to another and eventually they become "friends" with the brother-in-law of President Grant, and then use that friendship to try and manipulate the gold market. With all the fraud and bad faith dealing that has gone on in the past few years, this book points out that there is nothing new under the sun. As Gould and Fisk began an stock manipulators, printing worthless stock certificates to avoid takeovers, to eventually trying to use insider information to make anothe fortune in gold. It is a story of greed, avarice, governmental bribery and Wall Street intrigue that makes it an easy book to read and understand. And while some reviews have focued on the editing, and blaming the author for mistakes in the paperback edition, there are no such mistakes in the First Edition copy that I just read.

Ackerman writes another accessible, informative and engaging history of the Gilded Age in his book on the Gold Ring. At a time when government regulation was nonexistent and men with deep pockets could reign financial terror; the unthinkable happened and greed ran the country. This book details from start to finish how the key players came to know eachother and plan the gold ring under Jay Gould's masterful strategy. It is a story of daring wits, bribery at the highest levels and pure showmanship that all two men to manipulate the price of gold. Utilizing resources from newspapers, to letters to congressional hearings conducted by James Garfield the reader is given a clear picture of what happened during the gold ring. I do second what other reviewers have said that this book is full of typos that make it hard to read at times but it does not draw away from the content. Overall this is the book to read if you want to understand further the gold ring and its implications in the financial world.

This is my third book by Ackerman. The book is excellent. He simplies the details and maintains the readers attention. With the current mortgage meltdown, it's good to know that these things have happened before and the country survived and moved on. BUT . . . (you knew this was coming) I have never seen a book with so many typos. That is inexcusable. Grate arther, good stori, ect., but thos tyops---

Ackerman manages to make the financial part of this scandal easily comprehensible. He also does a great job of sketching in the principals as living, breathing characters. At the center of this tale sit Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, an unlikely team-- one a stiff, and tightly self-controlled, the other a flamboyant high-roller who lived openly with his mistress. How they hatched a plot which nearly trashed the entire US economy is more adventure than detective story. Ackerman has put his tale together with a good assortment of sources (once the gold scheme blew up, lots of people had lots to say, some of it in court), and he manages to give us just enough background for understanding without wandering off down some side street. And he shows how the fallout included the beginnings of federal regulations to protect the US economy. Originally written in 1988, this is a great piece of work and a welcome reissue (though filled with an extraordinarily large number of typos). Highly recommended.

I loved reading this account of the money game in old New York played by the masters Fisk and Gould. The story was gripping and the themes amazingly relevant to today.