Spreading the Risks is an American business story told in a straightforward style by an industry insider and leader. It chronicles the development of the commercial insurance industry against the backdrop of changing social, political and economic imperatives — from colonial times to today. Author Jack Bogardus participated in a business transforming itself to meet market dynamics and changing needs.

Told from his vantage point as an industry veteran and retired CEO of insurance broker Alexander & Alexander, Mr. Bogardus set out to preserve the institutional memory of the business, recording a history and providing the context for industry moves. Spreading the Risks is the most complete account to date of insurance brokerage development in America and offers valuable lessons for insurance and business professionals.

Pulitzer Prize winning author of Founding Brothers, Joseph J. Ellis, calls it “a paradoxical and fascinating story of how the boisterous energies of the marketplace were rendered safe, how risk taking became more prudent, how the economic jungle was tamed.”