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Wall Street to Main Street: Charles Merrill and Middle-Class Investors | 
 enlarge | Author: Edwin J. Perkins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Category: Book
List Price: $43.00
Buy New: $30.64
You Save: $12.36 (29%)
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Rating:  3 reviews
Sales Rank: 1476150
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Pages: 308
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.7
ISBN: 0521027799
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN: 9780521027793
ASIN: 0521027799
Publication Date: November 2, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand New. Delivery is usually 5 - 8 working days from order, International is by Royal Mail Airmail
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Product Description
Wall Street to Main Street: Charles Merrill and Middle-Class Investors focuses on the spectacularly successful career of financier Charles Merrill (1885-1956), the founder of Merrill Lynch & Co., the world's largest brokerage and investment firm. Merrill was the most innovative entrepreneur in the United States financial services sector in the twentieth century. He was the most important figure in promoting common stocks as a prudent long-term investment vehicle for members of the middle class across the United States. Opening more than 100 branch offices across the nation by 1950, his firm solicited millions of middle-class households and became famous for bringing "Wall Street to Main Street" in the post-World War II era. Today, American investors hold, either directly or indirectly through mutual funds, a greater percentage of common stocks in their financial portfolios than do the citizens of any other country. Based on archival sources, this book is the first biography published about the career of this major Wall Street figure. Edwin Perkins is a professor of history and an expert on the development of American financial services. Author of five books and several journal articles, Professor Perkins has testified before the U.S. Congress about proposed reforms to U.S. financial laws.
Book Description
Wall Street to Main Street: Charles Merrill and Middle Class Investors focuses on the spectacularly successful career of financier Charles Merrill (1885-1956), the founder of Merrill Lynch & Co., the world's largest brokerage and investment firm. Merrill was the most innovative entrepreneur in the United States financial services sector in the twentieth century and the most important figure in promoting common stocks as a prudent long-term investment vehicle for members of the American middle class. Based on archival sources, this book is the first biography published about the career of this major Wall Street figure.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Highly Recommended! April 11, 2001
Rolf Dobelli (Luzern Switzerland)
Charles Merrill is an authentic American genius and today's capital markets bear his distinctive stamp in many ways, as Edwin J. Perkins' book proves in fascinating detail. While the book works as a business history and as a professional portrait, it is less successful as a biography because Perkins deliberately chose to focus on Merrill's professional life. By keeping Merrill's personal life very much in the background, Perkins declines to bring Merrill's personality to life. We learn about his career, but we do not seem to get to know the man himself. Happily, Merrill's achievements and business innovations are well worth examining. His commitment to service, integrity and the good of the common customer - even when that angered the elite customer - made him richer than most of the aristocrats who fought against him. We [...] recommend this worthy portrayal of a riveting role model to entrepreneurs, finance professionals and any business history buff.
 Embarrassing attempt at biography January 26, 2001
2 out of 5 found this review helpful
In his introduction, the author attempts vainly to put Merrill in the same category as Morgan and other great financiers. The problem is that he was not a financier, just a guy riding the trend of retailing in the 1920s. But his gratitude for his own personal pension fund appreciating in the 1990s and attributing it to people like Merrill is extremely embarrassing. This suggests that the author is trying to ingratiate himself to Merrill's company. A little balatant. More to the point, Mr. Perkins did not seem to understand his topic very well. He constantly refers to the backroom at Merrill as "backstage." The backroom and its problems was a big topic on Wall St from the 1950s through the 70s although Perkins seems unaware of the whole problem and constantly refers to it as backstage. Did anyone ever research a topic so poorly? Whether Merrill deserves a full fledged biography still remains unclear after reading this amateurish attempt.
 An informative account of a crucial figure in U.S. financial August 8, 1999
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I learned a lot about Wall Street history from this book. The relatively overnight successes of technology driven Wall Streeters should not obscure the more remarkable achievements of Charlie Merrill. The author skillfully describes the times in which Merrill operated and gave me a balanced view of Merrill's strengths and weaknesses. The story moves swiftly along and I gained a real appreciation of the future Merrill saw, the opportunities he capitalized on, and those he inspired along the way.
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