Bernard Baruch was a self-made millionaire, legendary stock trader, and venture investor. For most of the first half of the 20th century, he epitomized Wall Street in the public mind, or at least the acceptable side of Wall Street. Celebrated as "Adviser to Presidents" and "The Park Bench Statesman " he also became known as "The Man Who Sold Out before the Crash." James Grant's research uncovered a wealth of previously untapped material on this fascinating figure. We read startling details of Baruch's controversial career in Washington in 1918 and at the Versailles Peace Conference in 1919; his behind-the-scenes role in the politics of the 1920s; his often-embittered relations with the New Deal and Fair Deal; and his service as American ambassador in the postwar negotiations to control the atomic bomb.