As the war in Europe accelerates and Hitler's Nazi forces rapidly expand control over neighboring countries a secret group of Treasury Department economists are tasked with working out a plan to stop Hitler's progress without involving the United States in "Europe's war."
As each economic theory is discussed and tested, it seems that they are always one step behind someone from the State Department who has already sabotaged their plans. How can a country, through economic means alone, stop a war? Who is the double agent who is feeding their plans to the enemy? Not only are they battling Hitler but also their allies in Great Britain, lead by economist John Maynard Keynes who wants to build a "world bank" based upon the British pound sterling. With the United States only willing to sell armaments "cash & carry" and demanding payment in U.S. Dollars, Harry White and Keynes get into an epic battle of wills over the future of the world's economy. Ansel Luxford and his wife, Angela are minor cogs in this contest until Ansel befriends Keynes and Angela goes to work at the FBI, where she discovers some vital communications that had supposedly been "lost." The contents of those messages changes both Ansel and Angela's perspective about the jobs they are doing in an effort to stop the war before the U.S. becomes involved.

Based upon actual events, I found the history fascinating. The pacing was a bit tedious at times and I would have preferred a more edited version of the events. Perfect for fans of World War II history and lovers of spy and espionage tales.

Viewing World War II through the economic perspective sounded interesting, but it didn’t resonate with me. Maybe it was the characters. Ansel Luxford started out seeming like a seedy character, which doesn’t appeal. A diverse group of people aim to cripple the German economy, based on true events. Somehow, it just didn’t grab my attention.

I’m going to jump straight into this review and ask the question I’ve been asking myself from page one: Why is a book set in 1939 opening with a quote about Bitcoin? On the one hand, I understand it. The book has a focus on money, knowledge, power, wealth, etc. and that could be an attempt at a modern perspective. On the other, it set a tone of confusion that I didn’t shake, especially with continued quotes that sometimes only slightly correlated with the chapter it was opening.

Ansel Luxford, a tax attorney, fears the worst for Germany at the close of the 1930s. At this point in time, America is neutral in the conflict and in foreign affairs, yet Ansel finds himself being called up to join a Washington underground team to fight the Nazis. Instead of using weapons, they play to the economy, or, ‘economic warfare’.

The concept? Unique and I’m sure intriguing to some. Unfortunately, I discovered while reading that I don’t have much interest in economics. It was a new perspective on the war for me, though, so that was a big takeaway.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for providing me with a free digital ARC of the book!

4.25. I really enjoyed Graham Moore’s Last Days of Night, so I was looking to reading his latest novel, The Wealth of Shadows. Similar to his earlier book, this historical fiction reads like a thriller. It focuses on the efforts of an obscure yet dedicated group of similarly minded public servants in the US Treasury that ultimately tried to take down the Nazi war machine and torpedo the German economy. It’s a wild ride and although it might seem daunting to read about some of the technical details of some complicated financial transactions, theories, and efforts by the team, Mr. Moore made it so palatable and easy to read. Although the United States’ stance was to remain neutral, the Treasury group was given a lot of latitude from the uppermost echelons to disrupt the Germany economy within constraints. This group concocted the cash and carry and then the lend lease initiatives to assist European allies. We meet some of the most interesting people in this group, Ansel Luxford, Harry Dexter White, Treasury Secretary Morgenthau, Randolph Paul (a founder of the Paul Weiss law firm ), Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, and John Maynard Keynes, among others, many of whom I was not aware. This thriller takes us through the halls of the US Treasury, Justice, and State Departments and the FBI, Bethesda, Maryland, McLean, Virginia, Panama and Europe. It’s a wonderful read, extremely well researched, and that will keep you captivated throughout. Thank you to Netgalley for providing me an advance copy in exchange for a candid and unbiased review.

My personal reading preferences tend toward nonfiction, especially history and politics, but one of my big reading goals for 2024 has been to read more fiction. When I was invited to read “The Wealth of Shadows,” a historical political thriller, it sounded like it might suit that goal perfectly for me: an exciting novel set in a familiar historical era and purportedly based upon true events.

Ansel Luxford is a simple Everyman, an accountant, and in fact an actual person, who becomes drawn into World War II-era US Treasury Department skullduggery. As part of a team assembled by Harry White, his goal is to use economic weapons rather than physical ones to take down Nazi Germany without ever firing a bullet. He realizes quickly that this is a dirtier, darker job than it sounds on the surface, that he cannot possibly know who to trust, who is truly acting altruistically or who is out solely for themselves, who is lying, who is not what they seem, who may even be an enemy spy.

I enjoyed this book thoroughly, though my favorite thing about it wasn’t really the text of the novel at all: it was finishing the story and then getting to dig deeper into the ‘based upon true events’ details, reading about how much of the tale was actually true (a surprisingly large amount!), what was mostly true but perhaps shuffled around for creative narrative reasons, what was only a supposition. Based on the author’s notes I now have a MUCH longer To Be Read pile of nonfiction books about the people and events imagined in the story.

I suspect that this may be fairly niche reading. I think that I am probably a part of a very specific target readership: lovers of nonfiction and history who would love to read more fiction but need it to feel more based in those genres than a lot of today’s popular fiction. To those readers I say: this was a really good book, and let’s be friends. Readers who don’t fit that description will likely find it dry, even obtuse.

Overall I give “The Wealth of Shadows” 4.5 stars.

You have to credit Graham Moore for finding an interesting angle about WWII that most readers don't know about. At least I didn't. In "The Wealth of Shadows" Moore tells the story of how agents in the US Treasury Dept, worked covertly to weaken Germany's economy and get weapons in England during a time when the US was supposed to be neutral. Furthermore, they went on to try and reshape the world's economy post-war to lessen the chances of another world war happening again.

Such high stakes and I knew nothing about it. I really like Moore's writing. He's an Oscar-winning writer ("The Imitation Game") and also wrote a novel I loved called "The Last Days of Night."

At points the book gets a little too in the weeds with economic theory, but it's testament to Moore's writing that he made this book as exciting as he does.

I received an e-galley of this book in return for an honest review.

This is a tale of World War II without a shot being fired. It is the quest to crash the German economy so the Nazis can no longer feed their troops or buy weapons of war.
I gave it the following SCORE:
Setting: Washington DC, 1939 - 1944
Characters: Ansel Luxford, a tax attorney working for the Treasury Department (but don’t let those 2 strikes stop you from getting involved in this tale), his family, an engaging team of fellow agents with a secret mission, and well-known political and economic figures of the time, including John Maynard Keynes, who plays a pivotal role
Overview: Instead of brute force and powerful weapons, Ansel’s team works to find ways to undermine the German economy before the United States enters WWII. Their attempts at various, devious, and complex strategies are opposed by economic, political, or philosophical problems, even within their own team. With the need for secrecy and approval by FDR, and the constant rivalry with Britain’s John Maynard Keynes’ alternate master plan for world economy, their ultimate goal seems unreachable.
Recommendation: I rate this book 4 stars
Extras: Two things make this book particularly interesting: the quotes at the beginning of each chapter are a mini-course in fascinating economics by themselves – and the episode of a professor using her skills to negotiate buying a used car is simply wonderful.
Thanx to NetGalley and Random House for the opportunity to provide this candid review.

A very interesting premise but I did have trouble with the economics as presented. It isn't my field and I could only understand things at the highest level (I would have appreciated a litle more effort in explaining to the lay person). Also found the writing a bit choppy -- possibly because I had trouble with the domain to stafrt with. I think this could be a very interesting book for another kind of person. Sorry!

“The Wealth of Shadows” is an economic focused book about WWII by Graham Moore. This book is definitely historical fiction - based upon things that really occurred monetarily in the US (and world) during WWII. I’ll admit, I’m not a person very interested in the workings of economies, but I was rather engaged in this book, especially during the setting up of the stage and even after John Maynard Keynes became a huge focus. However, after that, the discussion about how the US could pass “Cash and Carry” into “Lend-Lease” all the while still wondering who a Soviet spy might be just became a bit too much for me to take in and I found myself skimming the last 25% of the book [BTW, I was rather chuffed to have figured out the spy!]. I think if one is interested in finance and how governments work, this might be an interesting read. I did find the Author’s Note section rather interesting where Mr. Moore explains some of the “real goings on” and where he included fictionalized bits. A lot went on behind the scenes during America’s neutral stance during the early days of WWII - this book gave an interesting look into those areas.

I was a major fan of The Holdout. I thought it was a very credible, absorbing, believable novel about how a trial would commence and how one person’s vote could be so vital. I was amped to read his latest book. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment. The subject matter was very specific and complicated. It involved many discourses about money, its usage, its theories, its ability to cause ruin and wealth. At times, it was really so esoteric, I felt only a handful of readers would understand it or appreciate it. The historical time line and details are apparently truthful if you are familiar with the era this novel spans, so that is interesting in itself. However, this is also very limiting. I regret it will not attract a wide readership. I commend the author for his diligence doing the research which must have been enormous, but most readers won’t appreciate the effort.