"Conservatives versus Wildcats is an ambitious and accomplished book tackling not one but several core problems in economic sociology as well as comparative historical research. These include a theory of finance, the historical evolution of banking in the United States and Italy, the relationship between capitalism and democracy, the definition of money, and the social construction of creditworthiness. More tangentially, the contents inform theories of institutional emergence and research on the larger Western social transition from patrimonialism to bureaucratic and legal rationalism. If this seems like a lot, it should. Simone Polillo was written a book that is both dense and empirically and theoretically rich."—Emily Erikson, American Journal of Sociology "Polillo brilliantly illustrates how conservatives and wildcats push and pull the financial landscape in the U.S. and Italy, illuminating how financial conflict interacts with political change. This is must read for those interested in the sociology of finance, economic sociology, and international political economy."—Professor Leonard Seabrooke, Copenhagen Business School and University of Warwick "This handsome study confirms the impression that Polillo is one of the most creative and interesting economic sociologists of a new and coming generation. The book's thesis—that finance means conflicts of various types—and the way this argument is presented are both exciting and innovative."—Richard Swedberg, Cornell University "Polillo's Conservatives versus Wildcats is required reading for those interested in the politics of finance."—Liam Stanley, Political Studies Review