A brilliant financial biography from the author of
The Ascent of Money'Its many finance lessons aside,
High Financier is a pleasure to read simply as a work of literary skill. It is not only prodigiously researched but also splendidly written - clear and vivid and precise, perhaps even of enough merit to satisfy a word-stickler like Siegmund Warburg'
Wall Street JournalCrucial to understanding the rise of the City of London after 1945 and the story of the Euro
Niall Ferguson is one of Britain's most renowned historians. He is the Milbank Family Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, a senior faculty fellow of the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, and a visiting professor at Tsinghua University, Beijing. He is the author of fifteen books, including
The Pity of War,
The House of Rothschild,
Empire,
Civilization and
Kissinger, 1923-1968: The Idealist, which won the Council on Foreign Relations Arthur Ross Prize. He is an award-making filmmaker, too, having won an international Emmy for his PBS series
The Ascent of Money. His many other prizes include the Benjamin Franklin Prize for Public Service (2010), the Hayek Prize for Lifetime Achievement (2012) and the Ludwig Erhard Prize for Economic Journalism (2013). He was named Columnist of the Year at the 2018 British Press Awards.Beautifully paced, dramatically subtle and psychologically shrewd, this is Ferguson at his finestFerguson is a talented writer, capable of grace and insight, but it is his ability as a historian that shows most strongly in
High FinancierIts many finance lessons aside,
High Financier is a pleasure to read simply as a work of literary skill. It is not only prodigiously researched but also splendidly written-clear and vivid and precise, perhaps even of enough merit to satisfy a word-stickler like Siegmund WarburgA timely, original and engaging biography of Siegmund WarburgThis book is both a notable contribution to economic history and a fascinating portrait
This is the extraordinary story of Siegmund Warburg: the refugee from Nazi Germany who restored the Blitz-shattered City of London as the world's preeminent international financial centre. In recounting how this brilliant, scholarly man brought wit, passion and, above all, high ethical standards to the world of finance, Niall Ferguson shows how his meticulous methods were the antithesis of the debt-fuelled, speculative banking of our times.
'A fascinating portrait ... Beautifully paced, dramatically subtle and psychologically shrewd ... Warburg is an emblem of money as it ought to be, and now isn't' Bryan Appleyard, New Statesman
'Extensively researched and beautifully written' Peter Stormonth Darling, Spectator
'Ferguson's account of Warburg's life not only reveals a prophet of European unification and, later, globalization, but a banker from a more responsible (and civilised) era' Peter Mandelson, Daily Telegraph, Books of the Year
'A timely, original and engaging biography' Sathnam Sanghera, The Times
'Financially literate, extremely thorough, deploying dazzling breadth of cultural reference ... Ferguson has produced a fine historical biography. He has also reminded us, regrettably, that Warburg has no peer in the financial world today' Simon Shaw, Mail on Sunday
