rivals, and calling in debts from the
family of a recently deceased friend.
While providing an interesting slice of
history, Steinmetz fails to satisfactorily
flesh out this obscure figure, and his
account vacillates wildly between admiration and disgust. Agent: David Kuhn, Kuhn
Projects. (Aug.)
Wealth Secrets of the One Percent:
A Modern Manual to Getting
Marvelously, Obscenely Rich
Sam Wilkin. Little, Brown, $28 (352p) ISBN
978-0-316-37893-2
This exhaustively researched, misleadingly titled tome by economics consultant
Wilkin claims that nearly every enormous
fortune is founded on a “wealth secret,” a
slightly dodgy, if not actively illegal,
strategy. The author aims to provide guidance to those who are interested not just in
a “minor” increase in their fortunes, but in
achieving private-island, personal-jet,
“diamond-encrusted light fixtures” levels
of wealth. Acquiring billions takes both
smarts and luck, and all of the world’s
living billionaires—there are over
1,600—had both. The author tells the stories of individuals, companies, and groups
throughout history that attained astronomical wealth, including J.P. Morgan,
John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie,
Circuit City, and neoliberal-era Indian
industrialists. What he offers are not so
much secrets as lessons derived from well-documented success stories: “don’t be the
best, be the only”; “bigger is still better”;
own your own business; network like a
fiend. While the history is intriguing, the
tone and approach—presto-change-o
magical thinking—are not. Readers
looking for a shortcut to wealth are likely
to be disappointed. Agent: George Lucas,
Inkwell Management. (Aug.)
Writing with the Girls of
Gugulethu
Kimberly Burge. Norton, $26.95 (288p) ISBN
978-0-393-23916-4
Deftly combining memoir and soci-
ology, journalist Burge describes her
experience teaching creative writing to
adolescent girls in the South African
township of Gugulethu, near Cape Town,
in 2010. Amazw’Entombi, or “Voices of
the Girls,” is the name Burge’s students
gave their group, and the author shares
industry depended on it. Defending
Britain’s political interests while serving
its commercial interests required constant
delicate diplomacy.” Simply put, Bunch’s
mission was to subtly sabotage the slave
trade and Southern secession, under-
mining the very institution that produced
the goods his country demanded. As
Dickey tells it, Bunch was playing with
fire, and reader will feel the agent’s
mounting frustration as he sends missives
back to England, damning the slave trade
and Southern arrogance, while wearing a
more moderate face for his Charleston
neighbors. Bunch’s tale is framed by the
larger arguments of the time, including
the inexorable march toward war, and the
result is a fascinating tale of compromise,
political maneuvering, and espionage.
Dickey makes it easy to believe that the
obscure Bunch really did play a pivotal
role during his years in America. Agent:
Kathy Robbins, Robbins Office. (Aug.)
The Richest Man Who Ever Lived:
The Life and Times of Jacob Fugger
Greg Steinmetz. Simon & Schuster, $27.95
(320p) ISBN 978-1-4516-8855-9
Steinmetz, a securities analyst and
former journalist, reveals the untold story
of history’s “first documented millionaire”: 16th-century German banker Jacob
Fugger. Born into an Augsburg textile
family and apprenticed in Venice to learn
the trade, young Fugger also picked up
the basics of banking before moving on to
mining and spices. However, his important contributions to history revolve
around loans: funding conquests by
Maximilian of Hapsburg, orchestrating
the creation of the Austro-Hungarian
Empire, and providing Maximilian’s successor, Charles, with “the biggest loan the
world had ever seen” for his campaign to
be emperor. Fugger is further credited
with destroying the Hanseatic League and
organizing a debate that led to Pope Leo
lifting the ban on usury. Steinmetz argues
that Fugger also indirectly sparked the
Protestant Reformation by accepting
indulgence money as loan payments.
When a peasant revolt threatened capitalist stability, Fugger hired army commander George von Truchsess to quash it.
Steinmetz is direct about his subject’s dishonorable characteristics: mistreating
employees, ruthlessly ruining business
Nagasaki: Life After Nuclear War
Susan Southard. Viking, $28.95 (416p) ISBN
978-0-670-02562-6
Southard, founder and director of the
Arizona-based Essential Theatre, presents
a vivid (if gruesome) group portrait of five
hibakusha, or “atomic bomb affected
people,” 70 years after the U.S. dropped
atomic bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki. Her long acquaintance with the
survivors and facility with the Japanese
language result in an invaluable snapshot
of that harrowing moment in history.
Opening with a description of Nagasaki
circa 1945, “an L-shaped city built along
two rivers,” Southard dramatically depicts
how its 240,000 residents toiled to support a hopeless military effort. The
Japanese had been deluded into believing
that Nagasaki would be spared, as it was
home to “the largest Christian community in the nation.” Zeroing in on the crucial event, Southard movingly focuses on
her subjects’ experiences against the backdrop of the Manhattan Project, the whitewashing of the bombing’s aftermath by
the U.S. government, and the tug-of-war
over autopsy specimens, which was finally
resolved in 1973 by President Nixon.
While the hibakusha initially chose to
remain silent, a doctor named Akizuki
Tatsuichiro pushed for transparency, organizing the Nagasaki Testimonial Society.
This group, having reached old age, continues to share stories at public events
around the world. Southard offers valuable new information and context, and her
work complements John Hersey’s 1946
classic, Hiroshima. Photos. Agent: Richard
Balkin, Ward & Balkin Agency. (Aug.)
Our Man in Charleston:
Britain’s Secret Agent in the
Civil War South
Christopher Dickey. Crown, $27 (400p) ISBN
978-0-307-88727-6
The ambitious and politically-minded
Robert Bunch served as the British consul
in Charleston, S.C., from 1853–63, seemingly the ideal choice to represent Great
Britain’s interests in the South. But as
journalist Dickey (Securing the City) shows,
almost no one realized that he had a
double agenda. Great Britain had grave
concerns during the antebellum period:
“England hated slavery, but loved the
cotton the slaves raised, and British
