Book Description
A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism.
Founder of a dynasty, builder of the original Grand Central, creator of an impossibly vast fortune, Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt is an American icon. Humbly born on Staten Island during George Washington’s presidency, he rose from boatman to builder of the nation’s largest fleet of steamships to lord of a railroad empire. Lincoln consulted him on steamship strategy during the Civil War; Jay Gould was first his uneasy ally and then sworn enemy; and Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president of the United States, was his spiritual counselor. We see Vanderbilt help to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation—in fact, as T. J. Stiles elegantly argues, Vanderbilt did more than perhaps any other individual to create the economic world we live in today.
In The First Tycoon, Stiles offers the first complete, authoritative biography of this titan, and the first comprehensive account of the Commodore’s personal life. It is a sweeping, fast-moving epic, and a complex portrait of the great man. Vanderbilt, Stiles shows, embraced the philosophy of the Jacksonian Democrats and withstood attacks by his conservative enemies for being too competitive. He was a visionary who pioneered business models. He was an unschooled fistfighter who came to command the respect of New York’s social elite. And he was a father who struggled with a gambling-addicted son, a husband who was loving yet abusive, and, finally, an old man who was obsessed with contacting the dead.
The First Tycoon is the exhilarating story of a man and a nation maturing together: the powerful account of a man whose life was as epic and complex as American history itself.
0 有用 疾走 2014-03-10 15:11:17
Finally finished this big book. Well worth the time. He was the true entrepreneur, a word is often misused nowadays. Great writing as well, not dull at all.
0 有用 庄常飞 2011-05-26 19:11:48
对本书期待甚高,所以有点失望。作者虽然研究做的详细,但很明显Vanderbilt本人留下的痕迹不多,所以才会写很大的时代以弥补这方面的不足。在这一点上,我们可谓英雄所见略同。除此之外,文笔不流畅也是相似之处。本书读起来更像是论文,因此虽然信息很多,但让人很难享受。
0 有用 疾走 2014-03-10 15:11:17
Finally finished this big book. Well worth the time. He was the true entrepreneur, a word is often misused nowadays. Great writing as well, not dull at all.
0 有用 庄常飞 2011-05-26 19:11:48
对本书期待甚高,所以有点失望。作者虽然研究做的详细,但很明显Vanderbilt本人留下的痕迹不多,所以才会写很大的时代以弥补这方面的不足。在这一点上,我们可谓英雄所见略同。除此之外,文笔不流畅也是相似之处。本书读起来更像是论文,因此虽然信息很多,但让人很难享受。