The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
By T. J. Stiles
Read by Mark Deakins
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1 Format: Digital Download
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$32.50or 2 Credits
ISBN: 9780739384978
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.
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Summary
Summary
A New York Times bestseller
Winner of the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for Biography or Autobiography
Winner of the 2009 National Book Award for Nonfiction
One of the 2009 New York Times Book Review 100 Notable Books for Nonfiction
A 2009 Boston Globe Book of the Year for Nonfiction
A 2009 Kansas City Star Top 100 Book for Nonfiction
A 2009 San Francisco Chronicle Best Book for Nonfiction
A 2009 Christian Science Monitor Book of the Year for Nonfiction
Winner of National Book Awards, 2009
Winner of Pulitzer Prize, 2010
Editorial Reviews
Editorial Reviews
Details
Details
Available Formats : | Digital Download |
Runtime: | 28.76 |
Audience: | Adult |
Language: | English |
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