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David Kynaston

City of London: The History Hardcover – 3 Nov. 2011

by David Kynaston (Author)

4.3 26 ratings

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The 'Square Mile', London's financial powerhouse, rose to prominence with the defeat of Napoleon in 1815. David Kynaston's vibrant history brings this world to life, taking us from the railway boom of the 1830s to the 'Golden Age', when the legendary gold standard reigned supreme. Between the two World Wars the City was affected by the Wall Street Crash, pressured by politicians, trade unions and industrialists, but by the end of the twentieth century it had regained a precarious global might.

Woven throughout are the stories of four individuals who shaped the City in different ways - Nathan Rothschild, Ernest Cassel, Montagu Norman and Siegmund Warburg. But the realm of great bankers and brokers is also the workplace of young clerks throwing paper darts, typists bringing in their sandwiches, and sad racketeers watching aghast as the markets fall. Above all, we see what it was like to work in the City - the dress codes, eating habits, work hours, pay, humour, changing architecture and language that forged the unique culture of the Square Mile. Richly entertaining, full of vivid anecdotes, this is a story of booms, busts and bankruptcies - from the Kaffir boom to the Marconi scandal, the 'Big Bang' deregulation of 1986, and the Barings crash in 1995 - bringing us to the brink of the modern age.

David Knayston's groundbreaking history of the City of London, published in four volumes between 1994 and 2001, is a modern classic. Skillfully edited into a single volume by David Milner, it tells a story as dramatic as any novel, while explaining the mysteries of the financial world in a way that we can all understand.

Print length

704 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Chatto & Windus
Publication date

3 Nov. 2011
Dimensions

16.18 x 4.29 x 24.28 cm
ISBN-10

0701186534
ISBN-13

978-0701186531
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Review

The story is never dry, for Kynaston tells it as human drama... This is economic history at its most glittering. -- Simon Jenkins ― The Times

A work of breathtaking scope and accomplishment -- D.J. Taylor ― Independent

Magisterial... Kynaston is compulsively readable on all the great City scandals. -- William Keegan ― Observer

No one knows more secrets about the City of London than David Kynaston... about what goes on behind the copper-plate facades of old City firms, or in the boardrooms of the gleaming glasshouses. Kynaston is the historian of the City. -- Peter Oborne ― Sunday Express

Everyone should read David Kynaston's riveting history of the City: a subject too important to be left to the bankers. -- John Lanchester, author of Whoops! Why Everyone Owes Everyone and No one Can Pay

About the Author

David Kynaston was born in Aldershot in 1951. After graduating from New College Oxford, he studied at the London School of Economics. A professional historian, in addition to the four-volume The City of London, his works include King Labour: A History of the British Working Class, 1850-1914, histories of the Financial Times and the stockbrokers Cazenove & co., and a history of Britain between 1945 and 1979, Austerity Britain, 1945-51 and Family Britain, 1951-57.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Chatto & Windus (3 Nov. 2011)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 704 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0701186534
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0701186531
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 16.18 x 4.29 x 24.28 cm

Best Sellers Rank: 747,638 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 755 in Finance & Stock Market History
- 2,208 in Cultural History of London
- 3,083 in History of Ireland

Customer reviews:
4.3 26 ratings

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4.3 out of 5

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K. Charman

Compulsory

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 24 July 2013

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The only practical way to write an accessible history of the Square Mile is this way. The story is faithful to the detail and the facts but it portrays them through reference to the personalities and figures who cut the landscape. A painstaking technical, linear, sequential account would miss the point. If the history of the world is "but the biography of great men", (which it more or less is if we are to focus on the things that really matter) then Kynaston shows that the history of the City is but the ambition and industry of flawed men who are driven by vanity, greed and addiction. This is one of those books that I buy and send to my friends to assist their intellectual advancement and understanding of the chaos we live in. This is goal historians should aim at: well researched, nicely selective and superbly expressed. I don't write many reviews but I give this Top Marks. I look forward to reading the post WW2 of Britain by the same author.

7 people found this helpful

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constantine

fatal flaw

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 September 2012

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I have to agree with the 'frustrating' review. This is an excellent and surprisingly involving history of the financial powerhouse of the world. It is well written and balances an overview of the modern age's formation with particular anecdotes and personalities. BUT it desperately needs a glossary of terms. I work in fund management and yet even to me many of the terms are archaic or have now taken on different meanings. Perhaps the book is a victim of its otherwise excellent editing: apparently this was originally a quartet of books and maybe the longer volumes fleshed out some of the mechanics in greater detail. Perhaps it is a victim of its intrinsically complex subject matter and has opted to plough forward frictionless through centuries of information-overload. Either way too much is taken for granted which is a shame because for a little more explication this could be a really accessible and topical history. Enough for television producers to think about a series.

14 people found this helpful

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A. Hayes

Detailed history but sadly too heavily abridged

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 6 January 2019

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This was oringally a multi-volume work. I’d rather have bought that.

It’s a heft book despite being abridged. There’s lots of content (who knew the City was so interesting). Sadly, some of the editing leaves the information too brief to make sense. There are actual pages that are meaningless because explanatory information has been removed.

It’s still an interesting (and mammoth) read but edited too deeply in places. If there’s a version whereby I can buy them as sepearate volumes I’d do so as it is genuinely fascinating and clearly the author has done considerable research. This abridged version therefore does his work a disservice.

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giblets

for a cut down four volume oeuvre it is worth ...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 12 November 2014

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for a cut down four volume oeuvre it is worth the money . a bit dry for me but what did I expect.

2 people found this helpful

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Amazon Customer

... have not managed to finish it yet but another great book from masterful writer

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 11 January 2016

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I have not managed to finish it yet but another great book from masterful writer.

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Oxdep

City of London: The History

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 December 2011

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A a real cockney, I was misled into thinking this would be a history of the City of London: the guilds, the churches, the schools, the hospitals etc. Instead it was just about the Stock Exchange, the banks and finance.

19 people found this helpful

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Mrs. J. I. Maleary

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 September 2016

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Great book in excellent condition

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 19 February 2015

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great product

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City of London: The History Hardcover – 3 Nov. 2011

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David Kynaston

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