From the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Lords of Finance comes a brilliant and powerful account of the earliest truly global financial calamity: the crash of 1873. This hardcover edition traces the epic story of that crash and explores its profound economic and human costs, setting the stage for decades of global change.

• Examines the collapse of the Vienna stock market on May 9, 1873, and the subsequent panic that spread to Wall Street and global financial markets.
• Details how the growth of the international bond market in the 1850s and 60s fueled speculation in railways, construction, and nation-building.
• Analyzes the roles of key figures swept up in the boom and subsequent panic, including bankers like the Rothschild dynasty, national leaders, Jay Gould, Mark Twain, and Karl Marx.
• Traces the catastrophic losses suffered by investors and the misguided governmental responses on both sides of the Atlantic.
• Shows how the crisis led to twenty years of deflation and a legacy of aggrieved populism, influencing events such as the US abandoning Reconstruction and European powers economically engaging with the Ottoman Empire.
• Explores the revival of antisemitic movements in Europe that blamed 'Jewish finance' for the disaster.

• Author: Liaquat Ahamed
• Binding: Hardcover
• Print Length: 368 pages
• Language: English
• Publication Date: June 11, 2026
• ISBN-10: 1529155851
• ISBN-13: 978-1529155853
• Dimensions: 165 x 35 x 242 mm
• Weight: 580 g

1873 is a masterly examination of a key turning point in world history, detailing the unforeseen political and social consequences stemming from financial misjudgements.