Investing for Middle America: John Elliott Tappan and the Origins of American Express Financial Advisors

In 1894, in the teeth of America's second worst depression, a young Minneapolis lawyer feared for the ability of ordinary men and women to survive in a collapsing economy. John Elliott Tappan did something about it: he founded Investors Syndicate, the financial pioneer that later became American Express.

This is the story of an unlikely man and the role that he played in the great sea of change in American life. A reserved Republican, Tappan was one of America's great financial entrepreneurs. He created an investment service that championed slow, steady growth at a time of get rich quick scandals. The authors track the extraordinary successes of Tappan's idea through World War II.

Drawing on his letters, diaries, and family histories, they have created a fascinating chronicle of the transformation of American economy-and a rare portrait of the genius whose innovations and rock-solid faith in "democratic capitalism" helped make it possible.