Robert Sobel

Sobel was born in the Bronx. He completed his B.S.S. (1951) and M.A. (1952) at City College of New York, and after serving in the U.S. Army, obtained a Ph.D. from New York University in 1957. He started teaching at Hofstra in 1956. Sobel eventually became Lawrence Stessin Distinguished Professor of Business History at Hofstra University.

Sobel and his wife, the former Carole Ritter, had two children.{{cite news|url = https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/04/business/robert-sobel-68-a-historian-of-business-dies.html|title = Robert Sobel, 68, a Historian of Business, Dies|last = Henriques|first = Diana B.|page = C18|date = June 4, 1999|accessdate = May 29, 2023|newspaper = The New York Times|url-access = limited}} He died from brain cancer at his home in Long Beach, New York, on June 2, 1999, at the age of 68. After his death, the university established the Robert Sobel Endowed Scholarship for Excellence in Business History & Finance.

Sobel's first business history, published in 1965, was The Big Board: A History of the New York Stock Market. It was the first history of the stock market written in over a generation. The commercial and critical success of The Big Board launched a prodigious writing career during which Sobel authored more than 30 books, several of them best sellers, many articles, book reviews, and scripts for television documentaries and mini-series. From 1972 to 1988, Sobel's weekly investment column, "Knowing the Street", was nationally syndicated through New York Newsday. He was also regularly published in national periodicals, including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal. At the time of his death, Sobel was also a contributing editor to Barron's Magazine. He was a regular guest on financial and other news shows, such as Wall Street Week and Crossfire.

Sobel was nearly as famous for his only work of fiction, the 1973 book, For Want of a Nail. This book is an alternate history in which Burgoyne won the Battle of Saratoga during the American Revolutionary War. This work detailed the history of an alternate timeline, complete with footnotes. Sobel had authored or co-authored several actual textbooks. For Want of a Nail was republished in 1997 and won a special achievement Sidewise Award for Alternate History that year.

Sobel's dominant passion was Wall Street, a fascination that he held since his childhood. "It is as though you are walking through a historical theme park, with this engaging man at your side pointing out the sights," said Andrew Tobias, the author and investment guide, in a review in The New York Times of The Last Bull Market: Wall Street in the 1960s (W. W. Norton, 1978).

Most of Sobel's books were written for a general audience, but he never bristled when some scholarly writers dismissed him as a "popularizer," said his colleague and friend George David Smith, a professor of economic history at New York University. "Quite the contrary—he saw that as his mission in life."

• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title =For Want of a Nail ...; If Burgoyne had won at Saratoga|title-link=For Want of a Nail (novel)| publisher=Macmillan | location=New York | year=1973}}

• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title =The Origins of Interventionism: The United States and the Russo-Finnish War | publisher=Bookman Associates | location=New York | year=1960}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title =The Big Board: A History of the New York Stock Market | url=https://archive.org/details/bigboardhistory00sobe | url-access=registration | publisher=Free Press | location=New York | year=1965}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title =The French Revolution | publisher=Ardmore Press | location=New York | year=1967}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title =The Great Bull Market: Wall Street in the 1920s | url=https://archive.org/details/greatbullmarket00sobe | url-access=registration | publisher=Norton | location=New York | year=1968}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title =Panic on Wall Street: A History of America's Financial Disasters | publisher=Macmillan | location=New York | year=1968}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title =The Automobile Makers | publisher=Putnam | location=New York | year=1969}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title =The Curbstone Brokers: The Origins of the American Stock Exchange | url=https://archive.org/details/curbstonebrokers00sobe | url-access=registration | publisher=Macmillan | location=New York | year=1970}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title =Conquest And Conscience: The 1840s | publisher=Crowell | location=New York | year=1971 | isbn = 0-690-20939-8}}
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Biographical directory of the United States executive branch, 1774–1971 | publisher=Greenwood Pub. Co. | location=Westport, Conn. | year=1971 | isbn=0-8371-5173-2 | url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldire0000unse }}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=The Age of Giant Corporations: A Microeconomic History of American Business, 1914–1970 | url=https://archive.org/details/ageofgiantcorpor0000sobe | url-access=registration | publisher=Greenwood Press | location=Westport, Conn. | year=1972 | isbn = 0-8371-6404-4}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title =Machines and Morality: The 1850s | publisher=Crowell | location=New York | year=1973 | isbn = 0-690-00266-1}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title =The Money Manias: The Eras of Great Speculation in America, 1770–1970| publisher=Weybright and Talley | location=New York | year=1973}}
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=The Entrepreneurs: Explorations Within the American Business Tradition | publisher=Weybright and Talley | location=New York | year=1974 | isbn=0-679-40064-8 | url=https://archive.org/details/entrepreneursexp00sobe }}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title =Herbert Hoover and the Onset of the Great Depression 1929–1930 | publisher=Lippincott | location=New York | year=1975 | isbn = 0-397-47334-6}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=N.Y.S.E.: a history of the New York Stock Exchange: 1935–1975 | url=https://archive.org/details/nysehistoryoft00sobe | url-access=registration | publisher=Weybright and Talley | location=New York | year=1975 | isbn = 0-679-40124-5}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=The Manipulators: America in the Media Age | url=https://archive.org/details/manipulatorsamer0000sobe | url-access=registration | publisher=Anchor Press | location=Garden City, N.Y. | year=1976 | isbn = 0-385-08526-5}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Inside Wall Street: Continuity and Change in the Financial District | url=https://archive.org/details/1900sobe | url-access=registration | publisher=Norton | location=New York | year=1976 | isbn = 0-393-05643-0}}
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=The Fallen Colossus | publisher=Weybright and Talley | location=New York | year=1977 | isbn=0-679-40138-5 | url=https://archive.org/details/misterxnovel00stra }}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=They Satisfy: The Cigarette in American Life | url=https://archive.org/details/theysatisfycigar00sobe | url-access=registration | publisher=Anchor Press/Doubleday | location=New York | year=1978 | isbn = 0-385-12956-4}}
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Last Bull Market: Wall Street in the 1960s | publisher=Norton | location=New York | year=1980 | isbn=0-393-01309-X | url=https://archive.org/details/lastbullmarketwa00sobe }}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=The Worldly Economists | publisher=Free Press| location=New York | year=1980 | isbn = 0-02-929780-X}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=IBM: Colossus in Transition | publisher=Times Books | location=New York | year=1981 | isbn = 0-8129-1000-1}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=ITT: The Management of Opportunity | publisher=Times Books | location=New York | year=1982 | isbn = 0-8129-1028-1| title-link=ITT: The Management of Opportunity }}
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Car Wars: The Untold Story | publisher=Dutton | location=New York | year=1984 | isbn=0-525-24289-9 | url=https://archive.org/details/carwarsuntoldsto00sobe }}
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=The Rise and Fall of the Conglomerate Kings | publisher=Stein and Day | location=New York | year=1984 | isbn=0-8128-2961-1 | url=https://archive.org/details/risefallofconglo00sobe }}
• {{cite book | last1=Sobel | first1=Robert |last2= Sicilia |first2= David | title=The Entrepreneurs: An American Adventure | url=https://archive.org/details/entrepreneursam00sobe | url-access=registration | publisher=Houghton Mifflin | location=Boston | year=1986 | isbn = 0-395-42020-2}}
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=IBM vs. Japan: The Struggle for the Future | publisher=Stein and Day | location=New York | year=1986 | isbn=0-8128-3071-7 | url=https://archive.org/details/ibmvsjapanstrug00sobe }}
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=RCA | publisher=Stein and Day | location=New York | year=1986 | isbn=0-8128-3084-9 | url=https://archive.org/details/rcasobe00sobe }}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Salomon Brothers, 1910–1985: Advancing to Leadership | publisher=Salomon Brothers | location=New York | year=1986}}
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=The New Game on Wall Street | publisher=Wiley | location=New York | year=1987 | isbn=0-471-84527-2 | url=https://archive.org/details/newgameonwallstr00sobe }}
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Quality of Earnings: the Investor's Guide to How Much Money a Company is Really Making | publisher=Free Press | location=New York | year=1987 | isbn=0-02-922630-9 | url=https://archive.org/details/qualityofearning00oglo }}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Biographical Directory of the Council of Economic Advisers | publisher=Greenwood Press | location=New York | year=1988 | isbn=0-313-22554-0}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Trammell Crow, Master Builder: The Story of America's Largest Real Estate Empire | url=https://archive.org/details/trammellcrowmast00sobe | url-access=registration | publisher=Wiley | location=New York | year=1989 | isbn=0-471-61326-6}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Biographical Directory of the Governors of the United States 1983/88 | publisher=Meckler | location=Westport, Conn. | year=1989 | isbn = 0-930466-00-4}}
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Biographical directory of the United States executive branch, 1774–1989 | publisher=Greenwood Press | location=New York | year=1990 | isbn=0-313-26593-3 | url=https://archive.org/details/biographicaldire00sobe }}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=The Life and Times of Dillon Read | publisher=Truman Talley Books/Dutton | location=New York | year=1991 | isbn=0-525-24959-1}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Dangerous Dreamers: The Financial Innovators from Charles E. Merrill to Michael Milken | url=https://archive.org/details/dangerousdreamer00sobe_0 | url-access=registration | publisher=Wiley | location=New York | year=1993 | isbn=0-471-57734-0}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Coolidge: An American Enigma | publisher=Regnery Pub. | location=Washington, D.C. | year=1998 | isbn=0-89526-410-2| title-link=Calvin Coolidge }}
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=When Giants Stumble: Classic Business Blunders and How to Avoid Them | publisher=Prentice Hall | location=Paramus, N.J. | year=1999 | isbn=0-7352-0059-9 | url=https://archive.org/details/whengiantsstumbl00robe }}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=The Pursuit of Wealth: The Incredible Story of Money Throughout the Ages of Wealth | url=https://archive.org/details/pursuitofwealth00robe_0 | url-access=registration | publisher=McGraw-Hill | location=New York | year=2000 | isbn=0-585-18949-8}}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=AMEX: A History of the American Stock Exchange | publisher=BeardBooks | location=Washington, D.C. | year=2000 | isbn=1-893122-48-4| title-link=American Stock Exchange }}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=Thomas Watson, Sr.: IBM and the Computer Revolution | publisher=BeardBooks | location=Washington, DC | orig-year=1981 | year=2000 | isbn = 1-893122-82-4}} *** A paperback reprint of IBM: Colossus in Transition.
• {{cite book| last=Sobel | first=Robert | title=The Great Boom 1950–2000: How a Generation of Americans Created the World's Most Prosperous Society | publisher=St.Martin's Press | location=New York | year=2000 | isbn=0-312-20890-1 | url=https://archive.org/details/isbn_9780312208905 }}
• {{cite book | last=Sobel | first=Robert |author2=Roger Lowenstein | author3-link=Louis Rukeyser |author3=Louis Rukeyser | title=Crashes, Booms, Panics and Government Regulation | publisher=Blackstone Audiobooks | location=Ashland, Or. | year=2006 | isbn=0-7861-6489-1| author2-link=Roger Lowenstein }}

{{reflist}}

• Hand, Judson, "If Washington Hadn't Been the Father of His Country," Sunday (New York Daily) News, February 18, 1973.
• MacGregor, Martha, "The Week in Books," New York Post, March 31, 1973.
• Sicilia, DB, "Remembering Robert Sobel (1931-1999)" [https://ssrn.com/abstract=907169 Enterprise & Society: The International Journal of Business History], Vol. 1, Issue 1, pp. 182–187, (March 2000).
• Skow, John, "Parlor Games," Time, April 9, 1973.

• [https://www.c-span.org/video/?110049-1/coolidge-american-enigma Booknotes interview with Sobel on Coolidge: An America Enigma, August 30, 1998.]
• {{isfdb name|id=Robert_Sobel|name=Robert Sobel}}
• {{Internet Archive author |sname= Robert Sobel}}

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