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“B” is for Baruch, Bernard Mannes (1870-1965). Speculator, financier, presidential adviser.

“B” is for Baruch, Bernard Mannes (1870-1965). Speculator, financier, presidential adviser. The son of Jewish Polish immigrants, Baruch was born in Camden. In 1881 the family relocated to New York. Baruch enrolled in City College where he excelled in languages and political economy. He began his illustrious Wall Street career in 1891 and by 1903 had his own brokerage. Baruch possessed a trading acumen that earned him a fortune. In 1905 he purchased Hobcaw Barony in Georgetown County. He entered public life in 1916 as an economic adviser to President Woodrow Wilson. After World War I, he remained an influential elder statesman in the national Democratic Party. Despite his criticism of the New Deal, Bernard Mannes Baruch was an adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt and helped guide him on economic mobilization and demobilization for World War II.

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Dr. Walter Edgar has two programs on South Carolina Public Radio: Walter Edgar's Journal, and South Carolina from A to Z. Dr. Edgar received his B.A. degree from Davidson College in 1965 and his Ph.D. from the University of South Carolina in 1969. After two years in the army (including a tour of duty in Vietnam), he returned to USC as a post-doctoral fellow of the National Archives, assigned to the Papers of Henry Laurens.