Baruch: The Public Years

by Bernard M. Baruch

Overview

"During his public years, approximately half of the nine decades of his active life, Bernard Baruch has served or advised many of the men who in that time have ruled the Western world... Baruch approves of his own ideas and achievements, but neither is it rancid, for the author, at ninety, cares less for self-vindication than for a rational and decent order among men. The spirit of that admirable objective informs his often anecdotal narrative of men and events, among them the administration of the War Industries Board, the Paris Conference of 1919, the adventures of the prosperous and the trials of the poor in the decade of the 1920's, and some aspects of the New Deal, economic mobilization in World War II, and the abortive efforts since then for international control of atomic energy. Here there are contented recollections of Wilson, Churchill, Clemenceau and Roosevelt, and, less contented but still appreciative, of Harry Truman... [Baruch's] work is... significant... for what it reveals about him." — The American Historical Review

"That [Baruch] has unusual talents, no one denies. Had he been ambitious he might have become the first Jewish President of the United States. But not loving power, not yearning for the spotlight of publicity, and not wishing to assume responsibilities that would be extremely controversial, he has chosen to be an unofficial adviser for Presidents. And what a good one he has made! The Public Years should be a required book for all students of the United States in the twentieth century." — The Journal of Southern History

"Looking back at his experiences, Baruch interweaves his philosophy of government, service, and values, and his autobiography stands as a personal creed of individualism, patriotism, and communal responsibility." — American Jewish Historical Quarterly

"Mr. Baruch relates his association with great and near-great persons and his involvement in national and international affairs. His comments on past events, while profiting from the vantage of hindsight, are penetrating and sound. This account portrays the keen insight and wisdom of Bernard Baruch in surveying the momentous years between Presidents Wilson and Truman, and reveals the sage advice which he provided to those in positions of authority relative to the social, economic and military affairs of this nation." — Naval War College Review

"It can be said with complete accuracy, I think, that no living person surpasses Bernard M. Baruch in experience, study, and leadership in all phases of industrial preparedness." — Ordnance

Product Details

BN ID:	2940186568841
Publisher:	Plunkett Lake Press
Publication date:	01/27/2023
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	6 MB

About the Author

Born in Camden, South Carolina to a Jewish family, Bernard Mannes Baruch (1870-1965) moved in 1881 with his family to New York City where he attended local schools and graduated from the City College of New York in 1889. He became a broker and then a partner in A.A. Housman & Co. Baruch bought a seat on the New York Stock Exchange and amassed a fortune before the age of 30 by speculation in the sugar market. With John D. Rockefeller, Jr. and others he founded the Intercontinental Rubber Company of New York, which dominated the guayule rubber market in the US. By 1903 Baruch, dubbed “The Lone Wolf of Wall Street” because he refused to join any financial house, had his own brokerage firm. By 1910, he had become one of Wall Street’s best-known financiers.

In 1916, Baruch left Wall Street to advise President Woodrow Wilson on national defense. He served on the Advisory Commission to the Council of National Defense and, in January 1918, became chairman of the new War Industries Board which successfully managed economic mobilization during World War I. He received the Army Distinguished Service Medal for his work for the war effort. In 1919, Wilson asked Baruch to be on his staff at the Paris Peace Conference, where he opposed what he saw as unrealistically high reparations imposed on Germany.

In the interwar years, Baruch was a strong advocate of US preparedness and of a more powerful War Industries Board, should war happen again. He remained a prominent government adviser during this time, anticipated a Wall Street crash as early as 1927, selling stocks short periodically in 1927 and 1928, and supported Franklin D. Roosevelt’s domestic and foreign policies after his election.

All through World War II, Baruch was a close advisor to FDR on the role of industry in war supply, was credited with greatly shortening the production time for tanks and aircraft and was appointed troubleshooter on several issues, including the supply of rubber to the armed forces. In 1944, Baruch commissioned a committee of physicians to help establish the specialty of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and provided over a million dollars of funding to many medical schools to further this cause. Baruch’s father had been a surgeon and was the first teacher of physical medicine at Columbia.

In 1946, Truman appointed him as the US representative to the United Nations Atomic Energy Commission, but his plan for international control of atomic energy was rejected by the Soviet Union.