“American Rascal: How Jay Gould Built Wall Street’s Biggest Fortune” by Greg Steinmetz is a captivating, well-researched biography of the legendary 19th century financier and railroad magnate, who was among the most polarizing figures of America’s Gilded Age. 

Gould is undoubtedly one of the most talented players of the stock market in American history, with an argument to be made that he is to the stock market what Wilt Chamberlain is to basketball. Although their skillsets might not translate as well to today’s game due to changes in rules, technology and the abilities of their competitors, they absolutely dominated their eras and have influenced the modern style of play. 

While some might think that it makes as much sense to study Gould’s tactics in 2025 as it does for a soldier to study archery, I believe this sentiment is overexaggerated, as there are many parallels between the world he lived in and the one we live in currently. 

Rather than providing an exhaustive summary of Gould’s life, I’ll only lay out a few key parts. Gould was born in 1836 in Roxbury, New York, to a poor dairy farming family and was the youngest of seven children. Although he did not pursue a formal college education, he valued learning, so he taught himself by reading books. Gould’s determination to escape the poverty he grew up in led him to become a surveyor, assisting a draftsman in making maps to be sold, as his first business experience. 

Through surveying, he met Zadock Pratt, who he’d eventually start a tanning business with. There, he realized that the trading of leather was a far more lucrative endeavor than simply producing it–ultimately leading him to venture to Wall Street, where he’d set himself up as a stockbroker and private investor. In this role, Gould found enormous success with his investments in railroad companies and in the telegraph operator Western Union. 

Worth noting too was his cornering of the gold market in 1869 that caused the market crash known as “Black Friday,” which he orchestrated with his partner Jim Fisk. As two of the most powerful businessmen at the time, always battling for control of companies, a fierce rivalry developed between Gould and Cornelius Vanderbilt during the first half of Gould’s career.  

“American Rascal” is more than just a biography of Jay Gould—it’s a window into the economic and social transformations of the Gilded Age; a must-read for those interested in American history, finance and/or the people that have shaped the business environment. An important piece of wisdom the biography gives is to not blindly trust news headlines, even if they come from sources widely regarded as credible. 

Equally important are the insights provided about what moves stock prices, whether it’s mass psychology or institutional investors and high net worth individuals with certain motives. So, for anyone seeking to understand the forces that defined the Gilded Age and continue to shape modern America, “American Rascal” is an enlightening and thought-provoking read.