The Life Insurance Enterprise, 1885–1910

Morton Keller received his M.A. and Ph.D. in History from Harvard University, and is author of numerous books and articles, including In Defense of Yesterday: James M. Beck and the Politics of Conservatism and The Art and Politics of Thomas Nast. He has also edited books on the New Deal and the age of Theodore Roosevelt. Mr. Keller is currently Samuel J. and Augusta Spector Professor of History at Brandeis University.

Well-written and well-documented...This book unquestionably puts the events affecting American life insurance during the critical period from the mid-1880s to 1910 into clearer historical perspective. As a case study, it also substantiates the conclusion of the author that to the traditional sum of external checks on corporate power in a free society, as outlined by Galbraith and others, should be added 'the complex but significant factor of internal restraints: the problems and consequences inherent in the process of institutional growth and maturity.'

An interesting and provocative interpretation of the behavior of the large American life insurance companies during the quarter century of 1885 to 1910.