Abstract

"Vanguard of the Bourgeoisie: Morgan Bankers, Communities of Interest, and Managing Democratic Publics "

Olga Koulisis, Murray State University (okoulisis@murraystate.edu)

This paper examines J.P. Morgan partner, Thomas Lamont as a conscious narrative builder and promoter between 1918 and 1923. Less interested in how elite bankers arranged financial syndicates or how they forged business-state relationships, this paper directs attention to how elite bankers like Lamont engaged in narrative construction to manufacture consent for their preferred actions both with fellow capitalists and the larger public. The interdependent, but elite-managed world Morgan bankers lived in during the early twentieth century increasingly required modifying the behavior and thought of others –a task they alone could not accomplish, but one partners could engage in and financially support.

While deeply involved in private talks with state officials and other economic elites following the Great War, Thomas Lamont also attempted to shape the views of wider groups, both within various business sectors and the broader educated public. During these years, he entered debates over what it meant to support “America First” and “return to normalcy” in terms of U.S. government policy outcomes and everyday American behavioral outcomes. In his quest to promote a vision of postwar peace and prosperity centered on membership in the League of Nations, purchasing foreign securities, and cooperating with the Great Powers, he bought newspapers, and, along with other partners, wrote editorials, made speeches in a variety of venues, and published books. The intense public battles in many ways turned off Lamont from direct public persuasion –that is, persuasion directly linked to him. It also helped shift his public-facing strategies from sentiment-based argumentation to the adoption of more technocratic discourse, a broader pattern that would take hold in the second half of the 1920s as many bankers shifted to institution-building.