What We Are Reading Today: Dollars and Dominion by Mary Bridges

In brief

The dominance of US multinational businesses today can seem at first like an inevitable byproduct of the nation’s superpower status. In “Dollars and Dominion,” Mary Bridges explores the ramshackle beginnings of US financial power overseas, showing that US bankers in the early 20th century depended on the US government, European know-how, and last-minute improvisation to sustain their work abroad.