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

By Felix Rohatyn

Book Overview

In this timely and urgent book, Rohatyn re-creates some of the most dramatic events in our history to show how strong and imaginative political leadership built America and demonstrates that such leadership is essential today to reverse the catastrophic degeneration of America's infrastructure, bridges, tunnels, roads and rails, flood levees and gates. Readers of David McCullough and Stephen Ambrose will revel in his narrative. Although the private sector has been the mainstay of America's economy, Felix Rohatyn argues the country could not have grown into its full destiny without the vision and determination of political leaders who imagined the future and acted to achieve it.

He begins with the Louisiana Purchase by Thomas Jefferson in 1805, which doubled the size of the country, and the construction of the Erie Canal in 1817-1825, which opened a water route to the West. The chartering of the Trans-Continental railroad, the Land Grant Colleges, and the Homestead Act in 1863, led by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, together opened the continent. The Panama Canal, which joined the east and West coasts by sea, was driven by Theodore Roosevelt. FDR's Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and Eisenhower's Interstate Highway program modernized America, and the GI Bill of rights, which came after World War II, remains the greatest investment in intellectual capital and housing in our history.

Rohatyn describes these enterprises as examples of the imagination and decisive leadership that the country is in desperate need of, and, in a final chapter, he predicts the multiple benefits of similarly bold undertakings to secure our nation's future and offers a blueprint for setting priorities and financing them.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416533133
• ISBN13: 9781416533139
• Release Date: May 2011
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.74 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

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.