A Week in Wall Street

In the chaotic early days of Wall Street, when fortunes could be made or lost before lunch, Frederick Jackson crafted a wickedly funny portrait of men driven mad by money. This 19th-century satire follows a cast of brokers, speculators, and naive investors as they navigate a market so wild it makes today's crypto swings look tame. Jackson gleefully dissects the psychology of greed, the herd mentality that drives bubbles, and the comfortable rationalizations men make while fleecing each other blind. The book pulses with the particular energy of a financial system still figuring out what it wants to be, and the eternal human talent for turning any market into a casino. It's a sharp, knowing look at a city where everyone's convinced they've found the secret, and nobody wants to admit they're just gambling.