http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129874298

2 Years Ago, Lehman Brothers Filed Bankruptcy

For the second anniversary of the collapse of Lehman Brothers, NPR talks to Financial Times editor Peter Chapman, author of 'The Last of the Imperious Rich'.

http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=24132

Excerpt

The Last of the Imperious Rich: Lehman Brothers, 1844-2008, begins with the arrival by ship of Henry Lehman in New York City, as he escapes a German region shot through with political oppression and anti-Semitism. 

Henry Lehman settled in Montgomery, Ala., hoping to make money from the pre-Civil War cotton economy, grounded in cheap slave labor.

The shift from Alabama to Wall Street came gradually. Chapman offers context for the move as the nation changed drastically and violently before, during and after its Civil War.