About book The First Tycoon: The Epic Life Of Cornelius Vanderbilt (2009)
Before I started reading this book I knew almost nothing about buying and selling stocks, especially calls, margins, short sells, etc. Afterwards I hardly know much more, which is kind of surprising, because the author takes a lot of time to go into the details of every stock battle that Vanderbilt had. The book read strangely in that it had a feel to the tone and style of having been written several decades ago. Everything from the language to the font had a classic feel. It's hard to explain; maybe I've just been reading a lot of more "modern" biographies, but it felt like a throwback. That's not a bad thing; the bad thing was I felt like the author got tired of his job. I'm not surprised. Vanderbilt's life seems pretty repetitive. Simply switch steamships with trains and there you go. Overall a thorough retelling of his professional life; the author makes the point that there was little information about his family and their personal lives, which would have certainly made for a more three dimensional work, but definitely worth a read if you are interested in Vanderbilt, the birth of corporations, 19th century America, etc. The First Tycoon is a rare gem as it beautifully blends biography with the sweeping historical narrative of America in the early 19th century. It energetically depicts Vanderbilt as the towering figure who shaped the world he lived in and whose accomplishments laid the foundation for our transportation and financial sectors. The book includes a great deal of valuable fact checking and analysis of period newspaper reporting and private correspondence rather than just repeating dubious texts indiscriminately. Author T.J. Stiles certainly earned both the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award that now accompanies this work.
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Very insightful on the creation of the American corporation. A good piece on US history.
—crydiddy1
This is an excellent book. Well-written and thorough. Stiles is a phenomenal researcher.
—Ayesh
One of the best books I have read in the past 2 years.
—tugar
