> But the main drift of these reflections was to make me realize how little
> I actually know about the details about 19C US financial history. Can
> anyone recommend a good book on the subject? Soundess counts most of
> course, but amusement value would be appreciated if possible.
This isn't a subject I know well at all, but a work that's cited all the time in other works on US economic history is Margaret G. Myers, _A Financial History of the United States_ (NY: Columbia UP, 1970). I've only read bits and pieces of this, so I can't really attest personally to its soundness, but the fact that it's oft-cited gives at least some assurance of its reliability. There's an essay by Richard Sylla on the post Civil War US in Rondo Cameron (ed.), _Banking and Economic Development: Some Lessons of History_ (Oxford UP 1972). I read this a long time ago and don't remember it well, but it is also frequently cited. Needless to say, none of this is light holiday reading.
For the (somewhat) lighter side, Ron Chernow's _The House of Morgan_ is a fun read, and one can certainly do worse than to revisit Matthew Josephson, _The Robber Barons_, or his neglected _The Politicos_, not to mention Ida Tarbell.
Library of America should put out a "Great Muckrakers" volume.
Jacob Conrad