Bold Endeavors: How Our Government Built America, and Why It Must Rebuild Now

by Felix Rohatyn

Book Overview

Bold Endeavorsis a compelling narrative of ten large and transformative events in American history. It is an absorbing journey through the past as we read about determined national leaders -- Jefferson, Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, FDR, and Eisenhower -- who found the will, steadiness, and political acumen to make decisions that were often unpopular but that proved to be visionary -- decisions that are the building blocks of America's destiny.Rohatyn...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416533125
• ISBN13: 9781416533122
• Release Date: February 2009
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 259 Pages
• Weight: 1.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.5" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Great History Book

This is a very interesting history book covering ten of the events that transformed the United States. If you have any interest in History or Finance, you will find these stories to be of great interest. Mr Royhatyn writes in an easy flowing style, that is clear, concise, and to the point. It makes you want to know more.

Send this book to the White House

I think this book should be sent to the White House. In this book, the author presents a case that our country desperately needs investment in infrastructure. Our roads, bridges, schools, hospitals, airports, roadways, ports, dams, water lines, and air control systems are deteriorating. Spending money on infrastructure would not only decrease the potential risks of collapse, but it would also create jobs. There is nothing more important at this moment than jobs. The administration can fix healthcare, offer all types of incentives and credits, but unless people are working, the economy will not improve. This is a great book and everyone should read it. - Mariusz Skonieczny, author of Why Are We So Clueless about the Stock Market? Learn how to invest your money, how to pick stocks, and how to make money in the stock market

Whet Your Appetite

Bold Endeavors will whet you appetite to dig into the long list of books on each of the 10 "bold endeavors" the author provides in the back of the book. Each chapter of the book gives a very brief history of the original idea and implementation of a major American project, ranging from the Louisiana Purchase to the Interstate Highway System. The book is a whirlwind of famous projects and some not so famous names. For example, who knew that a Congressman named Morrill was responsible for the Land Grant Colleges? In fact, if you did know than this book is not for you because you need something a bit more in depth. The author's epilogue endorses an existing proposal for a national infrastructure bank, partially to cure the nation's economic woes. But the book demonstrates that America needs to invest regardless of the gyrations of the stock market or home prices. Because imagine if we hadn't done some of the major investments in the book: No Panama Canal-Less US role as a global economic and naval power. No GI Bill-Less US role as a higher education leader. No transcontinental railroad-A much less united nation in the post-Civil War years. The list goes on. Check out the book.

A realistic view of America

I lived through the bankruptcy of New York City. It was a very disturbing experience. At one point garbage was piled high on the streets. The author of this book helped save New York City. He chaired what was called the Municipal Assistance Corporation ("Big Mac") that forced all parties, including rich bankers, to sacrifice to save New York. It worked. This book should help bury once and for all the fantasy that "big government" played no role in U.S. history. It details how government intervention again and again shaped U.S. economic policy. Today, as the author points out, America is literally falling apart as result of a 28 year fantasy that "government was the problem". Read this book. It's not written by an abstract intellectual. It's written by somebody who actually worked with real people to help one of America's biggest cities recover from a disaster produced by excessive government borrowing. American has had "credit card government" since 1981. Now we face a day of reckoning. This books gives insights on a way out of today's mess.

Timely and Important!

"Bold encounters" tells of ten large and transformative public initiatives in American history, often unpopular at the time, but later proven visionary. Those included are the Louisiana Purchase - doubled the size of the country, the construction of the Erie Canal - opening a water route to the West, Lincoln's strong support for the transcontinental railroad, creation of Land Grant colleges and the Homestead Act, building the Panama Canal, bringing electricity to rural America, the G.I. Bill, and creating the interstate highway system. The underlying purpose of "Bold Endeavors" is to present an urgent call to rebuild America's infrastructure - roads and bridges, schools and hospitals, ports and dams, water, sewer, and electric lines. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimates that $1.6 trillion will be needed to make our infrastructure dependable and safe. Doing so will also create tens of thousands of new jobs, and reduce the estimated 13,000 deaths attributed to poor highway maintenance. Rohatyn contends that the ten stories in this book demonstrate that large-scale public investments can work, and with remarkable long-term success. The federal government is spending $73 billion/year on infrastructure, without a system to objectively prioritize. Rohatyn proposes a National Infrastructure Bank to both issue bonds for their funding and to rank proposals. Interestingly, Rohatyn, a former Wall Street investment bank leader, also believes that these problems are due to investment having been replaced by speculation, and that capitalists are killing capitalism. Finally, Rohatyn reminisces on his earlier service helping New York City avert bankruptcy - unfortunately, irresponsible leadership since then has brought the problem back through overly generous funding of public employee wages and retirement benefits. Meanwhile, China is investing $200 billion in railroads over 4 years, starting in 2006.