cover image The Plungers and the Peacocks: An Update of the Classic History of the Stock Market

The Plungers and the Peacocks: An Update of the Classic History of the Stock Market

Dana L. Thomas. William Morrow & Company, $22.95 (384pp) ISBN 978-0-688-08136-2

Thomas ( The Money Crowd ) here updates his 1967 history of Wall Street to cover more recent developments: computerized stock trading, massive institutional investing, the 1987 crash, merger mania and proxy wars, leveraged buyouts, etc. Though awesome in numbers and import, this lacks the color, verve and human interest of the background material that shows how industry, banking and stock-market financing were interwined with America's social history of gaudy overnight millionaries and the outraged politicians who dogged them. With its tales of fortunes won and lost through market manipulation by the likes of Jay Gould, Bill Durant and Jesse Livermore, and with anecdotes of colorful characters like the mystical Claflin sisters, Victoria and Tennessee, who in the 1870s had their own brokerage house, this jaunty saga is enormously entertaining and informative. Photos. (Mar.)