Biography of Peter L. Bernstein

960 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The history of the panama canal

Peter L. Bernstein was a teacher, economist, and a historian who grew to be one of America’s best known writers in promoting his perceptive of economics to the public. Bernstein graduated magna cum laude from Harvard College with a degree in economics. He was the author of ten books in economics and finance in addition to numerous articles in professional journals. Including his bestseller Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk. His other books include A Primer on Money, Banking, and Gold and The Price of Prosperity.
Bernstein tells how the canal's creation helped prevent the dismemberment of the American empire and knit the sinews of the American industrial revolution. He expresses how even the least important individuals who helped construct the Erie Canal, are as important as the most beneficial individual. Wedding of the Waters proclaims that all growth in the economy and the public can all be brought back to the great beginning of engineering; the Erie Canal.

Bernstein tells of a great American accomplishment and how it not only transformed the landscape of the economy but the political & social landscape as well. He investigates the economic, political, and social struggles that workers had to go through to put the Canal up to its true potential. This includes conflicts with finances and other leaders who thought this project could never become a great triumph. In the 1800s, people soon realized that the Appalachian Mountains were a restriction in uniting the Atlantic states with the lands of the west. The leaders of this great nation came up with the plan to construct the massive Erie Canal and unite the western lands and the Atlantic states. Bernstein talks about how many people tried to do things like this in...

... middle of paper ...

...s I thought it would be. Personally, I am not that into history and the making of the Erie Canal. But this book made me think more about how it really started a lot of other events and without these events, America would not be at all of what it is today. It has changed my perception of little constructions that are really what made America to be what it is today. I also liked how the book was about something that was local to my town. I would rather like to learn about something more local than something somewhere I am never going to visit. I would recommend this book to the people who like a good history story. To the people who want to know more on their local history and how much it has impacted American life. If an individual gives this book a chance, they might find something unique that they like about the amazing story of how the Erie Canal was fabricated.

Show More
Related

  • The Artificial River: Book Review Of The Artificial River

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Artificial River is one of them, and In my opinion the book is very important. One of them is simply the fact that its author has done extensive research as something that brought change impact on ordinary American lives. This canal would promoting the development of the area, helping to growth, and a new way of desarroLLando faster , efficient and inexpensive transport between the residents and merchants of the neighbors towns. Even the American alimentation was impacted by this. Not only because its author causlidad book begins on the words “Oysters! Oysters! Beautiful oysters! "

    Read More

  • The Affect of Railroads on Chicago

    472 Words  | 1 Pages

    There is one reason Chicago is as big as it is today and that is the fact that it is the largest rail city in the world. The railroad made Chicago what it is today, and although the canal was very important in the history of Chicago the railroads importance out weighs it by far. The canal was important because it was the vision of the first settlers of Chicago to have an all water trade route that would go through Chicago. What those first explorers saw was a way to make a canal so that they could transport goods from the St Lawrence River all the way to the Gulf of Mexico with less cost and with more efficiency. The canal was the reason Chicago was settled in the first place if not for it there might very well not be a city called Chicago. You could argue that the canal was the most important thing in Chicago's history but I think the railroads were much more important. The railroads enabled Chicago to become one of the biggest cities in the world by bringing in different business and all types of goods. Chicago is a very key location to have a railroad-shipping hub. This is because it is centrally located in the United States so goods can be shipped in almost any direction and received in a shorter amount of time. William Butler Ogden was the one who pushed for Chicago to adopt a large rail system and he should be known as the one who made this city boom. St. Louis or another centrally located city could have very well adopted the rail system and they would have reaped all the benefits.

    Read More

  • Water Transportation in the Jacksonian Era

    1170 Words  | 3 Pages

    “Erie Canal.” Electric Library. 9 Jan. Hadfield, Charles. The Canal Age. New York: Frederick A. Praeger Publishers, 1968.

    Read More

  • Chants Democratic

    1198 Words  | 3 Pages

    Wilentz maintained that the completion of the Erie Canal and the market revolutions of the nineteenth century, together, with a strong republican ideology altered the class

    Read More

  • Teddy Roosevelt and the Panama Canal

    520 Words  | 2 Pages

    Over the course of the Spanish-American war , the obvious need for a canal came apparent.The canal would stregthen the navy, and it would make easier defense of the islands in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. The problem of where to build the canal came into play. Congress rejected Nicaragua and Panama was an unwilling part of this project. The course of the building was shifted to Colu...

    Read More

  • The Restless North Chapter 10 Analysis

    1285 Words  | 3 Pages

    The first event of importance discussed in chapter ten was the transportation revolution. As the country was growing and expanding westward the American’s were faced with the dilemma of how to best transport goods far from where they were produced for as little money as possible. The introduction of innovative ways to move goods and people were being introduced into the United States such as roads, the Erie Canal, and railroads were readily adopted as a way to address the issue. The reason I feel this was important is because the transportation revolution provided new and cost-effective ways to

    Read More

  • Bury My Heart At Wounded Knee Analysis

    2232 Words  | 5 Pages

    Overall I thought the book was a great piece of writing, depicting extremely important events in our history, in a different way than I am used to. Having a clear and defined perspective in the book made it much more enjoyable and relevant, and thus it had much more of an impact than simply reading about these events in a textbook, which I believe was Dee Brown’s goal in writing it. The history of the Native Americans is crucial to the history of America, and it is important that people understand the entirety of these events, because they shaped who and what we are today.

    Read More

  • Jesse Hawley: The Invention Of The Erie Canal

    1057 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Erie Canal was a man made water way that stretched to be three hundred sixty three miles long. The canal started construction in1817, and took nine years to completely finish the building process. People during this time had many positive, and negative opinions about the fact that this expensive canal was being built. The idea of the Erie Canal originates with Jesse Hawley, the idea was to connect the great lakes to the Atlantic ocean making an easy path to the west from the east without having to pass Niagara Falls. The canal was mostly built by Irish immigrants who were hated, or disliked, by most people. People had ideas and predictions about what would come of this canal. Let's just see which of the predictions were more accurate to

    Read More

  • Leonard Bernstein

    2264 Words  | 5 Pages

    Leonard Bernstein is widely known not only as one of the greatest American conductors, but also as a composer whose creativity and passion was spread over a wide range. His social and cultural influences helped shape his career into a musical icon and his music rekindled the American spirit. Above all, he will be remembered as one of the most amazing and influential musical personalities of the twentieth century.

    Read More

  • The State of Michigan

    2254 Words  | 5 Pages

    The first and most challenging problem associated with building the Mackinac Bridge arrived long before the bridge was even designed. Financing such an enormous project was no easy feat. In 1928, the idea of connecting the upper and lower peninsulas was proposed to Congress for the first time (Brown 4). At the time, the suspected bridge project was very much under government scrutiny and control. In fact, the initial boost in interest in pursuing the construction of a bridge came about due to the depression. The Public Works Administration (PWA) had been created under President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal economic plan which would fund certain construction projects with th...

    Read More

  • The Erie Canal

    1595 Words  | 4 Pages

    ... line the canal today. The development of the railroad in the 19th century and the automobile in the 20th century sealed the fate of the Erie Canal.

    Read More

  • Essay On 102 Minutes

    539 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is a really unsettling book. While I was encouraged by all the heroism and people helping each other out, I was also angry to read that so many deaths could be avoided if there were better communication and safety codes. I definitely would recommend this book to everyone though. It really opens your eyes about September 11th and it does not bash anything. Overall, it is an amazing book. It changed my whole view of September

    Read More

  • The Pullman Strike of 1894: Turning Point for American Labor

    1751 Words  | 4 Pages

    White, Richard. “Strike.” Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America. New York: W.W. Norton, 2011. N. pag. Print.

    Read More

  • Industrialization and Social Changes in Early America

    1716 Words  | 4 Pages

    Farmers, who had moved out west looked for a way to send their produce back east. However, roads were far too expensive and inefficient for this. Thus, canals and steamboats were used to link the country commercially and allow for the transport of goods across the nation. The Erie Canal was one of the greatest technological achievements of its time. At 363 miles long it connects New York to the Great Lakes by water (Sheriff 251). The canal provided easy passage halfway across the country for people and goods and sparked a push for westward movement. To travel on these new canals steambo...

    Read More

  • Railroad Development in America

    2381 Words  | 5 Pages

    In the early 1820’s America’s major mode of transportation of people and goods were canals and stageco...

    Read More

More about Biography of Peter L. Bernstein

Open Document