Bank War

In The Bank War: Andrew Jackson, Nicholas Biddle, and the Fight for American Finance, historian Paul Kahan explores one of the most important and dramatic events in American political and economic history, from the idea of centralized banking and the First Bank of the United States to Jackson's triumph, the era of "free banking", and the creation of the Federal Reserve System. Relying on a range of primary and secondary source material, the book also shows how the Bank War was a manifestation of the debates that were sparked at the Constitutional Convention....

Renouncing fealty to all masters or driven mad by the rigours of war, the Blackshields are a stain upon any Legion they once served. Regarded as little better than pirates, their loyalty is only to themselves. Infamous among their mercenary ranks is Endryd Haar, a former World Eater, driven by hatred, his blade pledged to no banner but his own. But estranged from his Legion and surrounded by a battered warband of warriors, how long can Haar and his Blackshields hope to endure?

This is a story about cops and robbers, set against the backdrop of the Great Depression, a desperate time for many, when the boundaries between right and wrong were often blurred. It is the story of J. Edgar Hoover versus the John Dillinger Gang--the center pieces of the so-called War on Crime. It was an era of bank heists. Between 1931 and 1934, bank robberies in the United States averaged two per day. Three-quarters of those robberies occurred in the Midwest; in Indiana, alone, there were 29 bank robberies in 1933. The gangsters earned sympathy from many of their fellow countrymen. After...