The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

Zusatztext 43059114 Informationen zum Autor T.J. Stiles Klappentext NATIONAL BESTSELLER WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD In this groundbreaking biography, T.J. Stiles tells the dramatic story of Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt, the combative man and American icon who, through his genius and force of will, did more than perhaps any other individual to create modern capitalism. Meticulously researched and elegantly written, The First Tycoon describes an improbable life, from Vanderbilt's humble birth during the presidency of George Washington to his death as one of the richest men in American history. In between we see how the Commodore helped to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation. Epic in its scope and success, the life of Vanderbilt is also the story of the rise of America itself.The IslanderThey came to learn his secrets. Well before the appointed hour of two o’clock in the afternoon on November 12, 1877, hundreds of spectators pushed into a courtroom in lower Manhattan. They included friends and relatives of the contestants, of course, as well as leading lawyers who wished to observe the forensic skills of the famous attorneys who would try the case. But most of the teeming mass of men and women—many fashionably dressed, crowding in until they were packed against the back wall—wanted to hear the details of the life of the richest man the United States had ever seen. The trial over the will of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the famous, notorious Commodore, was about to begin.Shortly before the hour, the crowd parted to allow in William H. Vanderbilt, the Commodore’s eldest son, and his lawyers, led by Henry L. Clinton. William, “glancing carelessly and indifferently around the room, removed his overcoat and comfortably settled himself in his chair,” the New York Times reported; meanwhile his lawyers shook hands with the opposing team, led by Scott Lord, who represented William’s sister Mary Vanderbilt La Bau. At exactly two o’clock, the judge—called the “Surrogate” in this Surrogate Court—strode briskly in from his chambers through a side door, stepped up to the dais, and took his seat. “Are you ready, gentlemen?” he asked. Lord and Clinton each declared that they were, and the Surrogate ordered, “Proceed, gentlemen.”Everyone who listened as Lord stood to make his opening argument knew just how great the stakes were. “the house of vanderbilt,” the Times headlined its story the next morning. “a railroad prince’s fortune. the heirs contesting the will. . . . a battle over $100,000,000.” The only item in all that screaming type that would have surprised readers was the Times’ s demotion of Vanderbilt to “prince,” since the press usually dubbed him the railroad king . His fortune towered over the American economy to a degree difficult to imagine, even at the time. If he had been able to sell all his assets at full market value at the moment of his death, in January of that year, he would have taken one out of every twenty dollars in circulation, including cash and demand deposits.Most of those in that courtroom had lived their entire lives in Vanderbilt’s shadow. By the time he had turned fifty, he had dominated railroad and steamboat transportation between New York and New England (thus earning the nickname “Commodore”). In the 1850s, he had launched a transatlantic steamship line and pioneered a transit route to California across Nicaragua. In the 1860s, he had systematically seized control of the railroads that connected Manhattan with the rest of the world, building the mighty New York Central Railroad system between New York and Chicago. Probably every person in that chamber had passed through Grand Central, the depot on Forty-second Street that Vanderbilt had constructed; had seen the enormous St. John’s Park freight terminal that he had built, featuring a huge bronze statue of hi...

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A The New York Times Notable Book
 
A Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The New Yorker, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and Kansas City Star Book of the Year
 
A mighty and mighty confident work. . . . This is state-of-the-art biography. . . . The First Tycoon has been widely praised, and rightly so. . . . This is state-of-the-art biography.
The New York Times
 
Superbly written and researched. . . . Worthy of its subject.
The Economist
 
Truly remarkable. . . . A landmark study that significantly enhances one s understanding of U.S. economic history. . . . [Stiles is] one of the most exciting writers in the field.
Foreign Affairs
 
Stiles has painted a full-bodied, nuanced picture of the man. . . . Elegance of style and fair-minded intent illuminate Stiles s latest, expectedly profound exploration of American culture in the raw.
The Boston Globe
 
Stiles, a superb researcher, has unearthed quantities of new material and crafted them into the illuminating, authoritative portrait of Vanderbilt that has been missing for so long.
The Washington Post
 
Very absorbing. . . . Much more than a biography. The book is filled with important, exhaustively researched and indeed fascinating details that would profit every student of American business and social history to read.
San Francisco Chronicle
 
Stiles writes with both the panache of a fine journalist and the analytical care of a seasoned scholar. And he offers a fruitful way to think about the larger history of American elites as well as the life of one of their most famous members.
The New York Times Book Review
 
Vanderbilt s story is indeed epic, and so is The First Tycoon. . . . Stiles is a perceptive and witty writer with a remarkable ability to paint a picture of the America in which Vanderbilt lived.
The Christian Science Monitor
 
Fascinating. . . . A reminder that Vanderbilt s life and times still have much to teach us.
Newsweek
 
Gracefully written. . . . [Vanderbilt] was the right man in the right place at the right time, and the meticulous Stiles seems to be the right man to tell us about it.
St. Petersburg Times
 
Stiles has given us a balanced and absorbing biography of this colorful and often ruthless entrepreneur.
James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era
 
Monumental. . . . Arresting. . . . Stiles has a gift for making readers admire unsavory characters. . . . [The First Tycoon] resembles a five-course meal at a three-star restaurant: rich and pleasurable.
Bloomberg.com
 
Engrossing and provocative. . . . Stiles draws on exhaustive archival research to clear away the apocryphal and celebrate Vanderbilt as an American icon.
Tulsa World
 
At long last a biography worthy of the Commodore, meticulously researched, superbly written, and filled with original insights.
Maury Klein, author of The Life and Legend of Jay Gould
 
Stiles writes with the magisterial sweep of a great historian and the keen psychological insight of a great biographer. . . . With panache and admirable ease, Stiles maps the financial and political currents on which Vanderbilt buccaneered and shows that it was Vanderbilt, more than anyone else, who enabled business to evolve into Big Business.
Patricia O Toole, author of When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House
 
A brilliant exposition of the life of Cornelius Vanderbilt and the entrepreneurial environment that he shaped. Readers will look at Grand Central Station and much else in American life with fresh eyes.
Joyce Appleby, author of The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism
 
The definitive biography of Commodore Vanderbilt. Both as portrait of an American original and as a book that brings to life an important slice of American history long neglected, this is biography at its very best. A magnificent achievement.
Arthur Vanderbilt II, author of Fortune s Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt
 
Stiles brings the Commodore, warts and all, to life in this new study, which is at once up-to-date in scholarly terms, analytically incisive, and lucidly written.
Raleigh News and Observer
 
Sweeping. . . . [A] magisterial, exemplary work . . . [that] offers entry into the storm-tossed world of our current tycoons and the rough waters they have piloted us into.
American History Magazine
 
Superbly researched and elegantly written. . . . Stiles s will likely prove to be the definitive biography of this epic entrepreneur.
Philanthropy Magazine

Product details

• Authors: T J Stiles, T. J. Stiles, T.J. Stiles
• Publisher: Vintage USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 01.06.2010
• EAN: 9781400031740
• ISBN: 978-1-4000-3174-0
• No. of pages: 719
• Dimensions: 156 mm x 232 mm x 38 mm
• Series: VINTAGE BOOKS
• Subjects: Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Biographies, autobiographies; Social sciences, law, business > Business > General, dictionaries