The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

Wonderful reading.

Having read biographies of great businessmen like John D Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford and JP Morgan I'm no stranger to such books but this one was one the the more boring ones I've read and it failed to keep me interested for a long time. It was written more like an essay rather than a compelling biography. I would recommend Titan by Ron Chernow over this one

The book seems to be a big essay, every small detail is explained with references. The author gives no emphasis on readability as the book is littered with references for every trivial instance.

For anyone who wants to learn about who actually defined the country we live in, start with this book! then ill do carnegie, Morgan and Rockfella ;)

The life of Cornelius Vanderbilt is fascinating. T.J Stiles does a fantastic job of detailing the life of Vanderbilt in thorough detail from his birth to his death. Born in 1794 and breathing his last breath in Jan 1877 Cornelius Vanderbit led an incredibly full life starting with nothing and ending with the largest estate in the United States at the date of his passing. He lived through fascinating times being born just afer independence and living through the civil war and industrialization of the country. T.J Stiles takes the reader through the life of the great man as well as a journey through the times in which Vanderbilt lived including the political and economic climate that defined the man and how he evolved with the changing times. The book is split into 3 major parts. He sets the stage by starting at the end and the court case over the Vanderbilt estate: the vast majority of the Vanderbilt estate was left to William Vanderbilt with a fraction left to the rest of his large family. The author discusses his formative years and how he scrapped together money to buy his first boats to ferry passengers back and forth his beginnings were humble. He then started working for Gibbons which was a defining moment for Vanderbilt as the larger than life Gibbons was a strong personality that fundamentally shaped Vanderbilt and his perspective on business. One goes through supreme court history in the Vanderbilt biography and gets taken through one of the first seminal cases, Gibbons vs Ogden which was a defining case for interstate trade and the ability of states to set local monopolies. The author details the tactics of competitive steam boat businesses and the ruthless characters involved. The lawlessness of the land is learnt through the history told. The author moves chronologically through Vanderbilt's life and details the growing fleet of ships Vanderbilt controls and the vast steamships he commissions. Gibbons passes away and his tie to his mentor's family is severed with rivalry with the son. Vanderbilt becomes his own man and the author takes the reader through history and the political and intellectual backdrop. The author tries to get the reader to appreciate the Jacksonian view of small scale business and laissez faire capitalism as invisioned by Jackson and how Vanderbilt's businesses were in early stage raw capitalism where participants were vying for monopoly rights through short term competition. The author details how politicians are intimately involved in speculation, using their power to manipulate outcomes favorable for their stock positions. The reader is introduced to "bull runs" and "bear runs" on stocks as well as cornering of markets by speculators to squeeze the positions of others. The complete insider trading aspects of the market are starkly shown. Vanderbilt evolves as a character, always focused on the markets as an owner operator despite the fact that ownership migrates from private partnership to public listed corporations. His attitude sets him ahead of his competitors as he always made his businesses operationally efficient due to longer term alignment of interest. The disregard for labour during this era is discussed as well. The author discusses how Vanderbilt moved from steamships to railroads. The capital commitment for railroads was a multiple for other businesses. Vanderbilt himself almost died from a railroad accident when they were first being built as a passenger car he was in derailed. Despite the difference in scale, Vanderbilt continued to focus on railroads in an owner/operator mentality. He competed, consolidated and tried to create regional monopolies. The author details his family life and the paths forged by his children and inlaws. One gets a real human side from the author as he details the often strained relationships with his children. Vanderbilt was sharp and committed until the end when he died as the richest man in America. The life of Vanderbilt is fascinating and filled with details about the lives of his colorful contempories like Daniel Drew, Jay Gould, Augustus Schell, to name a few. The book is long and it takes a while to get through this but it is well worth the time. One gets a sense of how business was conducted 150 years ago and the economic and political debates of the time. One also gets a sense of how the industrial revolution was changing everything and the life of a man who was at the center of it and helped shaped the economic outcomes. We learn of how panics and overconfidence bankrupted many a men and how Vanderbilt managed a growing empire through the turbulent times. Definitely worthwhile read for both economic and american history.

Dieser beeindruckende Wälzer lehrt interessierte Leser eine Menge über das Geschäftsleben. Man muss allerdings eine Menge Durchhaltevermögen und Disziplin mitbringen, um sich durch die zahlreichen Aktiendeals von Vanderbilt zu lesen. Doch das wird mit hochinteressanten Insights in die Seele eines der größten Unternehmer aller Zeiten belohnt.

A good read so far.

Zeer uitgebreide biografie van Van der Bilt, met zowel veel aandacht voor zijn persoonlijke en familieleven, als de uitbouw van zijn zakelijk imperium. De uitgebreidheid (ook mee te danken aan het grote aantal bronnen) beperkt ietwat een vlotte leesbaarheid, maar all in all een boek dat voor lezers die geïnteresseerd zijn in het begin van de grote ondernemingen (en grote familiefortuinen) in de USA zeer verhelderend is.