... riveting ... The thrilling dramatic turn at the heart of The Hour of Fate is the great anthracite coal strike of 1902, in which the coal miners’ union demanded higher pay and safer working conditions ... It’s a complicated and terrific story, and Berfield tells it with an extremely skillful blend of wide-canvas exposition and small-scale personal drama. Her characters, particularly Roosevelt and Morgan, come alive in all their multifaceted natures.
Excellent topic. Excellent scope. Excellent writing ... The focused scope of the book impresses immediately. In a period when names like Rockefeller, Carnegie, Hearst, Mellon and countless others roamed the landscape, Berfield assiduously concentrates on Roosevelt and Morgan. They are the drivers, the forces, the cause of action, and while others figure prominently in the story, they do so as context. She doesn’t diminish their roles, but recognizes Roosevelt and Morgan to be ultimate leaders ... The book magnificently portrays Morgan as a man who loved art and travel, despised the inefficiencies of 19th-century industry and is possessed of a will that few can match...Roosevelt’s story is equally compelling ... a strong recommendation.
... wonderfully detailed ... [Berfield's] story is about the past but also very much about the present, as our own Gilded Age raises old questions about inequality, plutocracy and what Roosevelt once called 'that most dangerous of all classes, the wealthy criminal class' ... Berfield obviously did an extraordinary amount of research, and she draws heavily on documentary evidence to paint detailed pictures. This sometimes comes at the expense of clarity. I found myself reading a Wikipedia entry on the creation of Northern Securities to sort out what had transpired...It’s a tangent that doesn’t go anywhere and diverts from the drama of the strike ... And the book may make you both sad and mad, because it serves as a poignant, painful reminder of what a real leader does.
While diving into the inner thoughts of her subjects, Berfield simultaneously encompasses the political and social revolt of the moment, examining the anthracite coal strike ... It’s no easy task to write a dual biography while also incorporating the feelings and emotions of the historical moment, yet Berfield accomplishes all of this. An extremely readable work that will engage American history and business readers everywhere.
That someone must exercise dominion over the national economy is the erroneous premise of this story of almost pure good and pure evil. The free play of market forces makes its appearance only as an idea that history had supposedly passed by. Class conflict fills the gap ... Ms. Berfield’s wide-angle lens encompasses antitrust law, the details of railroad reorganization, investment banking, politics, coal mining and high living ... You don’t have to share the author’s dark view of the law of supply and demand to enjoy her prose, and she can do a lot with only a few words ... TR, repulsed by the owners’ 'wooden-headed obstinacy and stupidity,' couldn’t have deplored his age any more than Ms. Berfield does our own.
Bloomberg Businessweek journalist Berfield well portrays the major characters of this struggle without excessive detail, and her insights into both Roosevelt and Morgan make them seem quite contemporary. Includes photographs and bibliographic notes.
In her well-paced debut...investigative reporter Berfield ambitiously juggles several historic threads from a turbulent time in America: soaring immigration, labor unrest in the face of low wages and dangerous conditions, the seemingly untrammeled ambitions of big business, and the clamor for public accountability and oversight ... An engaging historical work involving truly larger-than-life American characters.
...a vivid account of the early 20th-century battle of wills between President Theodore Roosevelt and financier J.P. Morgan ... Weaving together the perspectives of labor, capital, and government, Berfield documents the origins of reforms including the eight-hour workday and worker’s compensation; she finds drama in complex and potentially dry business transactions, and makes insightful comparisons to today’s progressive movement. This entertaining account will resonate with American history buffs and those who agree with Berfield that 'the battle to make American capitalism more fair rages just as furiously' today as it did at the turn of the last century.
