Undue Influence would seem to have a couple things going for it: the book jacket claims that Charles Geisst is a best selling author of fifteen books. It covers an important and timely topic: the history of securities regulation, from the Crash of the 20s to the dot-bomb implosion of 2000. But it appears to have been rushed to print. There are parts of the book that are clear and informative, but there's also a lot of bloated and murky prose that should have been edited out.



The Introduction illustrates the faults of the whole book: the first sentence is strong and vivid, but in the following paragraphs, the writing breaks into cliches, mixed metaphors (a cornerstone of the safety net?), vague generalizations, and outright typos and grammatical mistakes.



The index is likewise sketchy. The term 'bucket shop' appears early, without explanation. The index lists only one occurrence, on page 155, well after the term first appears, and the term is not defined there, either.



I looked for the Acknowledgements to learn who edited this (or failed to), but there are no Acknowledgements - maybe no one wants to be associated with this rush job.



If you aren't already familiar with the history of securities regulation, look elsewhere for a good book on this topic.

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