American Colossus: The Triumph of Capitalism, 1865-1900

The relative prices of [gold and greenbacks] fluctuated according to the laws of supply and demand, and the fluctuating attracted speculators, who tried to anticipate the direction of the market. From anticipation to manipulation was a short, tempting step.

When I speak, I speak to the point, and when I act in earnest, I act to the point. If a man minds his own business, I let him alone, but if he crosses my path, he must get out of the way.

In imperial relationships, getting out proves much more complicated than getting in.

One with God is always a majority. But many have been burned at the stake while the boats were being counted. Thomas Reed

It may be that the voice of the people is the voice of God 51 times out of 100. But the remaining 49 times, it is the voice of the devil, or worse, the voice of a fool. Theodore Roosevelt

Grant made the perfect candidate, a war hero with indistinct views on most political issues.

William "Boss" Tweed was in such thorough control in New York that he made money off of the report the committee printed after investigating him.

Reporter Jacob Riis made it his mission to expose the horrors of poverty in New York. New to working with a camera, his flash actually set the walls of One apartment inhabited by five blind people on fire.

In the immediate aftermath of the great Chicago fire, a business proprietor erected a shack in front of his burned-out business. On a sign, he placed his name and the tagline that everything was gone but wife, children, and energy.

The first 10 days of a cattle drive were the most critical, as a stampede was most likely when the cattle were closest to their habitual home.

Andrew Carnegie was an inventor only in the sense that he adopted and adapted the discoveries of others.

The fact that California was the most cosmopolitan state in the union, as a result of the gold rush, simply made white voters more susceptible to racist and xenophobic arguments.

Once information slipped the bonds of gravity and friction, it tended to gather where it was most valuable.

The fundamental commodity bought and sold in financial markets is information, and once information slipped the bonds of gravity and friction it tended to cluster where it was most valuable - that is, in the largest markets.

Before going there I had a good deal of the then rather prevalent idea among our people that to secure an education meant to have a good, easy time, free from all necessity for manual labour. At Hampton I not only learned that it was not a disgrace to labour, but learned to love labour, not alone for its financial value, but for labour’s own sake and for the independence and self-reliance which the ability to do something the world wants done brings.

This senate was a place where good Representatives went when they died. Thomas Reed

Eugene Debs entered jail a moderate Unionist and emerged a Socialist.

The horizons of man are incomparably narrower than that of the land on which he toils. Editor of the Nebraska journal

Teain had no difficulty generating the indignation of a satirist. He lack the patience of a reformer.

A young mark twain on the make: "I can't turn in inkstand into Aladdin's lamp.

It's philanthropy, but it's good politics, too. Mighty good politics. The poor are some of the most grateful people in the world. George Washington Plunkett.

Chinese immigrant: "Americans make a mere practice of loving justice.

He (the immigrant father) would walk by proxy in the Elysian fields of liberal learning.

Cities force growth and make men talkative and entertaining, but they make them artificial. Ralph Waldo Emerson

America's mission is to join the most ancient civilizations with the most modern. John Augustus Roeblin

A live-in domestic worker: "You are never sure that your soul is your own except when you are out of the house.

Theodore Roosevelt came to Dekota to experience the dying of one age with the slaying of a rare buffalo and the dawning of the West's industrial age.

The strike spread with the speed of telepathy.