History of Greed - Financial Fraud from Tulip Mania to Bernie Madoff

Praise for Rags to Riches:

"There are as many paths to financial success as there are people who want to achieve it. This book shows that wealth is within the reach of just about anyone."
-Tom Siedell, Managing Editor, Your Money

"The most extraordinary thing about Rags to Riches is that it affirms how ordinary people have this tremendous, innate ability to achieve success and generate wealth if they put their minds to it."
-John E Wasik, Author, Retire Early and Live the Life You Want Now

"Rags to Riches: Motivating Stories of How Ordinary People Achieved Extraordinary Wealth" goes well beyond the quick-fix guru guidebooks to explore effective, long-term strategies that systematically build wealth. It's fascinating, candid look at how every day, people reach their goals by turning challenge into opportunity."
-Marla Brill, Publisher, Brill's Mutual Funds Interactive www.brill.com

"A fascinating and instructive collection of biographies."
-Evan Simonoff, Associated Publishedr/Editor-in-Chief, Financial Planning

"Now readers everywhere can discover what Palm Beach Daily News readers have learned: Gail Liberman and Alan Lavine know everything there is to know about personal wealth-how to get it and how to grow it. Gail's weekly column in our paper tells affluent readers how to manage their fortunes. This book takes a step back and tells readers, in the words of millionaires who've been there and done it, how to acquire a vast personal fortune."
-Linda Rawls, Editor, Palm Beach Daily News

Following the death of Joseph Smith, founder of the Mormon church, its second Prophet and new leader, Brigham Young, determined to move the faithful out of the Midwest, where they had been constantly persecuted by their neighbors, to found a new Zion in the wilderness. In 1846-47, the Mormons made their way west, generally following the Oregon Trail, arriving in July 1847 in what is today Utah, where they established Salt Lake City. Nine years later, fearing a federal invasion, Young and other Mormon leaders wrestled with the question of how to bring thousands of impoverished European converts, mostly British and Scandinavian, from the Old World to Zion. Young conceived of a plan in which the European Mormons would travel by ship to New York City and by train to Iowa City. From there, instead of crossing the plains by covered wagon, they would push and pull wooden handcarts all the way to Salt Lake.

But the handcart plan was badly flawed. The carts, made of green wood, constantly broke down; the baggage allowance of seventeen pounds per adult was far too small; and the food provisions were woefully inadequate, especially considering the demanding physical labor of pushing and pulling the handcarts 1,300 miles across plains and mountains. Five companies of handcart pioneers left Iowa for Zion that spring and summer, but the last two of them left late. As a consequence, some 900 Mormons in these two companies were caught in early snowstorms in Wyoming. When the church leadership in Salt Lake became aware of the dire circumstances of these pioneers, Younglaunched a heroic rescue effort. But for more than 200 of the immigrants, the rescue came too late.

The story of the Mormon handcart tragedy has never before been told in full despite its stunning human drama: At least five times as many people died in the Mormon tragedy as died in the more famous Donner Party disaster.

David Roberts has researched this story in Mormon archives and elsewhere, and has traveled along the route where the handcart pioneers came to grief. Based on his research, he concludes that the tragedy was entirely preventable. Brigham Young and others in the Mormon leadership failed to heed the abundant signs of impending catastrophe, including warnings from other Mormon elders in the East and Midwest, where the journey began. Devil's Gate is a powerful indictment of the Mormon leadership and a gripping story of survival and suffering that is superbly told by one of our finest writers of Western history.