Book Review: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer

For better or for worse, it's hard to imagine Wall Street without Eliot Spitzer. And now, as Spitzer looks to move from Wall Street to Main Street, a new book dissects the larger-than-life persona that since 1999 has cast its shadow over mutual fund giants, insurance titans and banking stalwarts.

In "Spoiling For A Fight: The Rise of Eliot Spitzer," Washington Post reporter Brooke Masters takes on the outsize task of going beyond the headlines that have come to shape the New York attorney general's public image -- from "Wall Street Watchdog" and "Defender of the Little Guy," to "Bad-For-Business Press Grabber" and "Boundary-Crossing Bully."

She seeks not to show us the legal eagle's softer side, but to make plain the ways in which he has legitimately earned all of these titles and then some, as he makes a bid to become New York's next governor.

Spitzer barely won the state's attorney general spot, but his high-profile cases against air polluters, mutual fund managers and stock analysts eventually won over the public, even as he clashed with federal regulators and other state attorneys general.

This could be in large part a coincidence of timing, given that he rose to prominence as the dot-com bubble burst and corporate highflyers, such as Enron, Worldcom and Global Crossing imploded in waves of accounting scandals and executive malfeasance.

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