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Subtitle: The Life and Times of the Greatest
Victorian, W. W. Norton, New York, 2019, 334 pgs., index, notes, bibliography,
illustrations
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Reviewer Comment: The author is a master
biographer and in addition, as the subtitle indicates, he has given us a vivid
picture of much of Victorian society.
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Author's note:
He opens the story with a quotation from Jeremiah Harman , director of the Bank
of England. describing the bank's action to rescue British finances in the
Panic of 1825. He contrasts the bank's action with Bagehot's prescriptions
written years later after living through more 'financial panics' in Lombard
Street about what a central bank needs to do in similar situations. He
presents a vivid summary of Bagehot, the man, that he will describe in detail
as his biography expands. He notes what he considers Bagehot's failings but,
nevertheless, his Bagehot is a hero.
"In sickness and health, he wrote as few have ever written before or
since".
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Prologue: "With Devouring Fury"
The author describes the history, background, and course of the Panic of 1825.
This includes a very detailed description of the entire financial, banking, and
money supply system and the political environment in which economic activity
took place. The Panic was a classic case of the public believing (mostly
correctly) that the paper currency, issued by private banks, was no longer
convertible on demand into a gold Sovereign. The Bank of England, holder of the
nation's gold, did not have enough gold Sovereigns. Not enough existed to equal
the volume of paper replicas that had been issued by the man banks. Grant
describes the financial system and shows how fragile it was.
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Chapter 1 - "Large, wild, fiery,
black"
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Chapter 2 - "In mirth and refutation -
in ridicule and laughter"
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Chapter 3 - "vive la guillotine"
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Chapter 4 - "The literary banker"
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Chapter 5 - "The ruin inflicted on
innocent creditors"
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Chapter 6 -"The young gentleman out of
Miss Austen's novels"
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Chapter 7 - A death in India
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Chapter 8 - The "problem" of W. E.
Gladstone
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Chapter 9 - "Therefore, we entirely
approve"
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Chapter 10 - "The muddy slime of
Bagehot's crotchets and heresies"
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Chapter 11 - The Great scrum of reform
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Chapter 12 - A loser by seven bought votes
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Chapter 13 - By "influence and
corruption"
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Chapter 14 - "In the first rank"
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Chapter 15 - Never a bullish word
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Chapter 16 - Government bears the cost
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Chapter 17 - "I wonder what my eminence
is?"
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