2024 the best president in the united states review

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Ferdinand Ward was the greatest swindler of the Gilded Age. Throughhis unapologetic villainy, he bankrupted Ulysses S. Grant and ran roughshod over the entire world of finance. Now, his compelling, behind-the-scenes story is told—told by his great-grandson, award-winning historian Geoffrey C. Ward.
Ward was the Bernie Madoff of his day, a supposed genius at making big money fast on Wall Street who turned out to have been running a giant pyramid scheme—one that ultimately collapsed in one of the greatest financial scandals in American history. The son of a Protestant missionary and small-town pastor with secrets of his own to keep, Ward came to New York at twenty-one and in less than a decade, armed with charm, energy, and a total lack of conscience, made himself the business partner of the former president of the United States and was widely hailed as the “Young Napoleon of Finance.” In truth, he turned out to be a complete fraud, his entire life marked by dishonesty, cowardice, and contempt for anything but his own interests.
Drawing from thousands of family documents never before examined, Geoffrey C. Ward traces his great-grandfather’s rapid rise to riches and fame and his even more dizzying fall from grace. There are mistresses and mansions along the way; fast horses and crooked bankers and corrupt New York officials; courtroom confrontations and six years in Sing Sing; and Ferdinand’s desperate scheme to kidnap his own son to get his hands on the estate his late wife had left the boy. Here is a great story about a classic American con artist, told with boundless charm and dry wit by one of our finest historians.
 

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B0067TGSZ4
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage (May 1, 2012)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 1, 2012
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 10257 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 539 pages
Reviewer: John
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Exceptional Writing
Review: I never do reviews. This book was of such quality (informational and writing style) that I felt a high review was earned.

Reviewer: michael c ward
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Family Affair
Review: As a voracious reader of historical works, I had often wondered whatever happened to the man responsible for leading U.S. Grant to financial ruin. This work by Geoffrey Ward about his (great) grandfather Ferdinand Ward did more than satisfy my curiosity. I first learned of the existence of this work when I attended a lecture by Mr. Ward on the Roosevelts at The New York Historical Society, when he mentioned his family relationship with Ferdinand Ward.Mr. Ward is an excellent writer who works closely with Ken Burns for whom he writes the material that makes Mr. Burn's documentaries come to life. It's obvious that Mr. Ward does not take great pride in his forefather's deeds, however he seems to have felt a family obligation to publically address or acknowledge this individual who very suddenly enters then exits the historical stage. It's also obvious that Mr. Ward recognized a good story to be told as well as a timely one i.e. Bernie Madoff. The schemes of Mr. Madoff and Ferdinand Ward were essentially the same; convince enough of the right people that you are a financial genius or "boy wonder", create unbelievable paper rates of return and then count on the greed or gulliblity (Grant) of others. Ferdinand Ward not only preceded Mr. Madoff by about 120 years, but almost outdid him by nearly bringing down the banking system and causing a Wall Street panic.This work is not the seller that some of Mr. Ward's other books have been, but it is well worth the read. I highly recommend this book. The angle of a well known author writing about a spectacularly disreputable relative is fascinating in and of itself.

Reviewer: Edward J. Lindsey
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A disposition to Be Rich hiits home
Review: We found "disposition" interesting and informative. Especially because we lived in the Ward home on Second Street in Geneseo for ten years, and we met Geoffrey Ward there while he was seeking family background. The more important (national) aspects of the book were interesting too. This copy we purchased for a nephew going to work in England. Our own copy has gotten a good circulation too. Always a history that includes people and places you know tends to be more interesting.

Reviewer: Peter Hillman
Rating: 3.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Disappointing
Review: Geoffrey Ward, a gifted historian and biographer, has graced the genre from outstanding books on the young FDR through his collaborations with Ken Burns on Jazz, the Civil War, WWII, Baseball. The appearance of a new book--especially one 50 years in the making--is exciting. The unusual steroid title, though, may be a tip-off that this effort is a real stretch.As always, the author delivers lucid and crisp writing, an amazing attention to detail, and thorough sourcing. It seemed, however, that this time out his prodigious talents were misdirected. A weighty account of his ancestors way-overstays its welcome (and interest, to anyone except a Ward relative); and, the protagonist is so colorless a reprobate as to make evident why no one save a distinguished relative has tackled him before in book length.Most of the first 90 pages concern Ferd ("Scoundrel") Ward's parents...their up-bringings, his decision to be a minister, their experiences as (failed) missionaries to India, their return to America, constant difficulties getting along with people and institutions, self-victimizing and narcissism (the latter being traits Ferd will inherit/absorb, together with ferocious, single-minded materialism). The difficulty is, these folks are largely uninteresting, sanctimonious misanthropes and constant whiners, hardly fodder for such extended treatment. The author's conscious decision to make this book a biography about the entire family starts off as misguided, for there is little if anything in the characters of Ferd's parents to grasp and hold a reader's attention. Consequently, the first fourth of the book is very hard slogging, mind numbing at times.Which means a devoted reader is really primed by the time Ferd appears, especially given the prefatory George Bernard Shaw quote: "If you cannot get rid of the family skeleton, you may as well make it dance." And Geoffrey Ward is most skilled in making historical figures dance off the pages.The fact is, however, that Ferd does not dance so much as he predictably weasels, connives and contrives his way to financial heights--almost never with any flair, wit or color. Ward can find nothing scamp or rapscallion to breathe life into his great-grandfather's villainy. (Sometimes a miscreant is just a miscreant.) Nor is there a character for us to root on, save for ex-President Grant, but we already know that (1) Ferd and others bilked Grant out of his money, and their bank fraud triggered a crash and (2) Mark Twain helped bring the dying Grant the Memoirs project that would leave his family with something.I did enjoy the accounts of the 1880's crash, and Ferd's trial and incarceration. Later kidnapping his own son for ransom from his ex was not shocking so much as merely confirming his inhumanity.It's not difficult to see how Geoffrey Ward, who has known of his shameless great-grandfather all his life, finally came to tell this story at such length. He inherited a trove of Ferd's personal papers 50 years ago. And he successfully recounts the sordid story while neither "gilding the lily" nor being overly-critical. He does his usual terrific historian's job. Take 200+ pages of the 1860-1900 years, and there's a real tale here worthy of Ward's gifts. As things stand, though, we have more of an exhumation than an overall worthwhile read.

Reviewer: C M
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Loved it
Review: After meeting the author and hearing him speak about the book, I took the chance and purchase it for my father, who is a big history buff. He absolutely loves the book. Well written and highly entertaining.

Reviewer: Mark Deegan
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: Great transaction. Easily made.
Review: Easy to make on-line transaction to my kindle. I'll do this type of transaction again.

Reviewer: Richard C Wesley
Rating: 5.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Family Confession
Review: I know many readers have found the book to "personal" in that in that Ward seems to engage in a familial confession of his great grandfather's guilt. That is one reason I liked the book so much. Who better toward tell the story than Ward. I must also give a note of public disclosure-- for seven years my wife and I live next to the Ward homestead in Geneseo. We never knew the story of Ferdinand Ward.

Reviewer: JZim
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars
Title: A Disposition to be rich
Review: In addition to being a really good story, it is ia reminder that greed and ponzi schemes in the financial world are not new. It is really well written and manages to keep an element of suspense, even when you know how it ends.