1 of 1 copy available
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.
-
Creators
-
Publisher
-
Awards
-
Release date
April 21, 2009 -
Formats
-
OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781415965924
- File size: 828458 KB
- Duration: 28:45:57
-
-
Languages
- English
-
Reviews
-
Commodore Vanderbilt presided over the birth of the American steamboat and railway industries, as well as the development of the modern corporation. His long and active life deserves all of the 571 pages Stiles gives him--and the nearly 29 hours Mark Deakins takes to read them. But be forewarned. This is an excellent biography, and the story it tells--of the building of modern America--is never less than compelling. But a steady degree of attention is necessary to follow the many business rivals and associates, competing steam and rail lines, and complicated deals and maneuvers that crowd these pages. Deakins does a first-rate job, and this is a fine production. But larger-than-life stories like these are sometimes clearer and more coherent, and more satisfying as a listening experience, in abridgment. D.A.W. (c) AudioFile 2009, Portland, Maine
-