Charles Geisst is the author of thirteen books, including The Last Partnerships: Inside the Great Wall Street Money Dynasties (McGraw Hill, 2001), Monopolies in America: Empire Builders and Their Enemies from Jay Gould to Bill Gates (Oxford University Press, 2000), 100 Years of Wall Street (an illustrated history, McGraw-Hill, 1999), and Wall Street: A History (Oxford University Press, 1997). Wall Street: A History was widely reviewed and was on the New York Times Business Bestseller List for three months and was a selection of the History Book Club and the Book of the Month Club International.
From 1972-75, Geisst taught political science in an open admissions environment in the City University of New York before taking a job on Wall Street. Subsequently, he worked as a capital markets analyst and investment banker at several investment banks in the City of London. Since 1985 he has taught finance at Manhattan College where he is presently a professor of finance. He was named the college's first Louis F. Capalbo Chair in Business in 1993. Consulting assignments in financial markets have been with Cazenove & Co., S.G. Warburg & Co., the Hudson Institute, and J.P. Morgan & Co. Listed in Who's Who and a frequent participant in Renaissance Weekend, he has published professional and trade articles in magazines and journals such as the International Herald Tribune, Neue Zurcher Zeitung, Newsday and Euromoney.