The First Tycoon
The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $29.25
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Mark Deakins
-
By:
-
T.J. Stiles
About this listen
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.
©2009 T.J. Stiles (P)2009 Random HouseListeners also enjoyed...
-
Andrew Carnegie
- By: David Nasaw
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 32 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Scottish-born son of a failed weaver and a mother who supported the family by binding shoes, Andrew Carnegie was the embodiment of the American dream. In his rise from a job as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory to being the richest man in the world, he was single-minded, relentless and a major player in some of the most violent and notorious labor strikes of the time. The prototype of today's billionaire, he was a visionary in the way he earned his money and in the way he gave it away.
-
-
Andrew Carnegie
- By Peggie on 10-01-07
By: David Nasaw
-
The House of Morgan
- An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P.Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece.
-
-
The construction of the House of Morgan
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-18
By: Ron Chernow
-
Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
-
-
He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
-
Custer's Trials
- A Life on the Frontier of a New America
- By: T.J. Stiles
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 23 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History. In this magisterial biography, T. J. Stiles paints a portrait of Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored. He demolishes Custer’s historical caricature, revealing a volatile, contradictory, intense person - capable yet insecure, intelligent yet bigoted, passionate yet self-destructive, a romantic individualist at odds with the institution of the military (he was court-martialed twice in six years).
-
-
Custer and his times
- By Mike From Mesa on 11-17-15
By: T.J. Stiles
-
Mellon
- An American Life
- By: David Cannadine
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 35 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landmark work from one of the preeminent historians of our time: the first published biography of Andrew W. Mellon, the American colossus who bestrode the worlds of industry, government, and philanthropy, leaving his transformative stamp on each. Following a boyhood in 19th-century Pittsburgh, during which he learned from his Scotch-Irish immigrant father the lessons of self-sufficiency and wealth accumulation, Andrew Mellon overcame painful shyness to become one of America's greatest financiers.
-
-
Fascinating and Detailed Biography
- By Nostromo on 04-17-07
By: David Cannadine
-
The Tycoons
- How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The modern American economy was the creation of four men: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. They were the giants of the Gilded Age, a moment of riotous growth that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet. Acclaimed author Charles R. Morris vividly brings these men and their times to life. The Tycoons tells the incredible story of how these four determined men wrenched the economy into the modern age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined earlier.
-
-
Good book wrong title
- By Hectoris on 10-06-16
-
Andrew Carnegie
- By: David Nasaw
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 32 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Scottish-born son of a failed weaver and a mother who supported the family by binding shoes, Andrew Carnegie was the embodiment of the American dream. In his rise from a job as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory to being the richest man in the world, he was single-minded, relentless and a major player in some of the most violent and notorious labor strikes of the time. The prototype of today's billionaire, he was a visionary in the way he earned his money and in the way he gave it away.
-
-
Andrew Carnegie
- By Peggie on 10-01-07
By: David Nasaw
-
The House of Morgan
- An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P.Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece.
-
-
The construction of the House of Morgan
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-18
By: Ron Chernow
-
Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
-
-
He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
-
Custer's Trials
- A Life on the Frontier of a New America
- By: T.J. Stiles
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 23 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History. In this magisterial biography, T. J. Stiles paints a portrait of Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored. He demolishes Custer’s historical caricature, revealing a volatile, contradictory, intense person - capable yet insecure, intelligent yet bigoted, passionate yet self-destructive, a romantic individualist at odds with the institution of the military (he was court-martialed twice in six years).
-
-
Custer and his times
- By Mike From Mesa on 11-17-15
By: T.J. Stiles
-
Mellon
- An American Life
- By: David Cannadine
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 35 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landmark work from one of the preeminent historians of our time: the first published biography of Andrew W. Mellon, the American colossus who bestrode the worlds of industry, government, and philanthropy, leaving his transformative stamp on each. Following a boyhood in 19th-century Pittsburgh, during which he learned from his Scotch-Irish immigrant father the lessons of self-sufficiency and wealth accumulation, Andrew Mellon overcame painful shyness to become one of America's greatest financiers.
-
-
Fascinating and Detailed Biography
- By Nostromo on 04-17-07
By: David Cannadine
-
The Tycoons
- How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The modern American economy was the creation of four men: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. They were the giants of the Gilded Age, a moment of riotous growth that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet. Acclaimed author Charles R. Morris vividly brings these men and their times to life. The Tycoons tells the incredible story of how these four determined men wrenched the economy into the modern age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined earlier.
-
-
Good book wrong title
- By Hectoris on 10-06-16
-
Napoleon
- A Life
- By: Andrew Roberts
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 32 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Andrew Roberts' Napoleon is the first one-volume biography to take advantage of the recent publication of Napoleon's thirty-three thousand letters, which radically transform our understanding of his character and motivation. At last we see him as he was: protean multitasker, decisive, surprisingly willing to forgive his enemies and his errant wife Josephine.
-
-
What a dynamo!
- By Tad Davis on 01-16-15
By: Andrew Roberts
-
Vanderbilt
- The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
- By: Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe
- Narrated by: Anderson Cooper
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times best-selling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty - his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts.
-
-
Interesting Approach to a Well Known History
- By HistoryNerd on 09-24-21
By: Anderson Cooper, and others
-
Washington
- A Life
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 41 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Washington: A Life celebrated biographer Ron Chernow provides a richly nuanced portrait of the father of our nation. This crisply paced narrative carries the reader through his troubled boyhood, his precocious feats in the French and Indian War, his creation of Mount Vernon, his heroic exploits with the Continental Army, his presiding over the Constitutional Convention, and his magnificent performance as America's first president.
-
-
A sad day when my book was done!
- By ButterLegume on 12-13-10
By: Ron Chernow
-
Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
- By: Jack Weatherford
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis, Jack Weatherford
- Length: 14 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Mongol army led by Genghis Khan subjugated more lands and people in 25 years than the Romans did in 400. In nearly every country the Mongols conquered, they brought an unprecedented rise in cultural communication, expanded trade, and a blossoming of civilization.
-
-
Golden Horde/Platinum Listen
- By Cynthia on 12-11-13
By: Jack Weatherford
-
Elon Musk
- By: Walter Isaacson
- Narrated by: Jeremy Bobb, Walter Isaacson
- Length: 20 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. One day a group pushed him down some concrete steps and kicked him until his face was a swollen ball of flesh. He was in the hospital for a week. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father, an engineer, rogue, and charismatic fantasist.
-
-
megalomania on display
- By JP on 09-12-23
By: Walter Isaacson
-
The People's Tycoon
- Henry Ford and the American Century
- By: Steven Watts
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 29 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How a Michigan farm boy became the richest man in America is a classic, almost mythic tale, but never before has Henry Ford's outsized genius been brought to life so vividly as it is in this engaging and superbly researched biography. The real Henry Ford was a tangle of contradictions. He set off the consumer revolution by producing a car affordable to the masses, all the while lamenting the moral toll exacted by consumerism.
-
-
50% Longer than it needed to be.
- By Chris on 04-06-13
By: Steven Watts
-
The Warburgs
- The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Jonathan Reese
- Length: 35 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bankers, philanthropists, scholars, socialites, artists, and politicians, the Warburgs stood at the pinnacle of German (and, later, German American) Jewry. They forged economic dynasties, built mansions and estates, assembled libraries, endowed charities, and advised a German kaiser and two American presidents. But their very success made the Warburgs lightning rods for anti-Semitism, and their sense of patriotism became increasingly dangerous in a Germany that had declared Jews the enemy.
-
-
The Warburg's Dynamic Family History
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-18
By: Ron Chernow
-
Alexander Hamilton
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 35 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Historians have long told the story of America’s birth as the triumph of Jefferson’s democratic ideals over the aristocratic intentions of Hamilton. Chernow presents an entirely different man, whose legendary ambitions were motivated not merely by self-interest but by passionate patriotism and a stubborn will to build the foundations of American prosperity and power.
-
-
An Outstanding & Riveting Book!
- By Kevin on 03-04-05
By: Ron Chernow
-
American Rascal
- How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune
- By: Greg Steinmetz
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Had Jay Gould put his name on a university or concert hall, he would undoubtedly have been a household name today. The son of a poor farmer whose early life was marked by tragedy, Gould saw money as the means to give his family a better life…even if, to do so, he had to pull a fast one on everyone else.
-
-
Questionable
- By Stan on 07-19-23
By: Greg Steinmetz
-
The Patriarch
- The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy
- By: David Nasaw
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 30 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joseph Patrick Kennedy - whose life spanned the First World War, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, the Second World War, and the Cold War - was the patriarch of America’s greatest political dynasty. The father of President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert and Edward Kennedy, 'Joe' Kennedy was an indomitable and elusive figure whose dreams of advancement for his nine children were matched only by his extraordinary personal ambition and shrewd financial skills.
-
-
Commissioned by the Kennedy Family...
- By E.R. on 09-09-13
By: David Nasaw
-
The Chief
- The Life of William Randolph Hearst
- By: David Nasaw
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 30 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
William Randolph Hearst, known to his staff as the "Chief", was a brilliant business strategist and a man of prodigious appetites. By the 1930s, he controlled the largest publishing empire in the United States, including 28 newspapers, the Cosmopolitan Picture Studio, radio stations, and 13 magazines. He quickly learned how to use this media stronghold to achieve unprecedented political power. In The Chief, David Nasaw presents an intimate portrait of the man famously characterized in the classic film Citizen Kane.
-
-
Fascinating but
- By Michael on 02-17-22
By: David Nasaw
-
The Snowball
- Warren Buffett and the Business of Life
- By: Alice Schroeder
- Narrated by: Kirsten Potter
- Length: 36 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is THE book recounting the life and times of one of the most respected men in the world, Warren Buffett. The legendary Omaha investor has never written a memoir, but now he has allowed one writer, Alice Schroeder, unprecedented access to explore directly with him and with those closest to him his work, opinions, struggles, triumphs, follies, and wisdom. The result is the personally revealing and complete biography of the man known everywhere as "The Oracle of Omaha."
-
-
2,220 well-invested minutes!
- By BogKid on 01-07-09
By: Alice Schroeder
Critic reviews
“A penetrating portrait of a complex, self-made titan.” -Citation for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography 2010
“With deep and imaginative research and graceful writing, T. J. Stiles’s The First Tycoon tells the extraordinary story of a brutally competitive man who was hard to love but irresistibly interesting as a truly pivotal historical figure. With few letters and no diaries, and with layers of legend to carve through, Stiles captures Cornelius Vanderbilt as a person and as a force who shaped the transportation revolution, all but invented unbridled American capitalism, and left his mark not only all over New York City but, for better or worse, all over our economic landscape.” -Citation for the National Book Award in Nonfiction 2009
“T.J. Stiles presents the magnate as a man in full.” -Boston Globe Best Books of 2009
Related to this topic
-
Meet You in Hell
- Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is history that reads like fiction: the riveting story of two founding fathers of American industry, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, and the bloody steelworkers' strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. Author Les Standiford begins at the bitter end, when the dying Carnegie proposes a final meeting after two decades of separation. Frick's reply: "Tell him that I'll meet him in hell."
-
-
an extended journalistic tour
- By D. Littman on 06-08-05
By: Les Standiford
-
An Empire on the Edge
- How Britain Came to Fight America
- By: Nick Bunker
- Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
- Length: 17 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of the American Revolution told from the unique perspective of British Parliament and the streets of London, rather than that of the Colonies. Here, Nick Bunker explores and illuminates the dramatic chain of events that led to the outbreak of the war-revealing a tale of muddle, mistakes, and misunderstandings by men in London that led to the Boston tea party and then to the decision to send redcoats into action against the minutemen.
-
-
Hard to put down
- By Mike From Mesa on 03-07-15
By: Nick Bunker
-
Railroaded
- The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
- By: Richard White
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The transcontinental railroads of the late 19th century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the US economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life.
-
-
Correcting the Myth of the Transcontinentals
- By Keith on 06-23-18
By: Richard White
-
Breaking Rockefeller
- The Incredible Story of the Ambitious Rivals Who Toppled an Oil Empire
- By: Peter B. Doran
- Narrated by: Peter B. Doran
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marcus Samuel, Jr., is an unorthodox Jewish merchant trader. Henri Deterding is a take-no-prisoners oilman. In 1889 John D. Rockefeller is at the peak of his power. Having annihilated all competition and possessing near-total domination of the market, even the US government is wary of challenging the great "anaconda" of Standard Oil. The Standard never loses - that is, until Samuel and Deterding team up to form Royal Dutch Shell.
-
-
Tale of business, cultures, dances as it teaches
- By Philo on 05-25-16
By: Peter B. Doran
-
Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
-
-
He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
-
The Money Men
- Capitalism, Democracy, and the Hundred Years' War over the American Dollar
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A best-selling historian's gripping account of the powerful men who controlled America's financial destiny. From the first days of the United States, a battle raged over money. On one side were the democrats, who wanted cheap money and feared the concentration of financial interests in the hands of a few. On the other were the capitalists who sought the soundness of a national bank and the profits that came with it.
-
-
Not clear what this book is really about
- By Chris on 07-03-08
By: H. W. Brands
-
Meet You in Hell
- Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America
- By: Les Standiford
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 10 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Here is history that reads like fiction: the riveting story of two founding fathers of American industry, Andrew Carnegie and Henry Clay Frick, and the bloody steelworkers' strike that transformed their fabled partnership into a furious rivalry. Author Les Standiford begins at the bitter end, when the dying Carnegie proposes a final meeting after two decades of separation. Frick's reply: "Tell him that I'll meet him in hell."
-
-
an extended journalistic tour
- By D. Littman on 06-08-05
By: Les Standiford
-
An Empire on the Edge
- How Britain Came to Fight America
- By: Nick Bunker
- Narrated by: Robert Ian Mackenzie
- Length: 17 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The story of the American Revolution told from the unique perspective of British Parliament and the streets of London, rather than that of the Colonies. Here, Nick Bunker explores and illuminates the dramatic chain of events that led to the outbreak of the war-revealing a tale of muddle, mistakes, and misunderstandings by men in London that led to the Boston tea party and then to the decision to send redcoats into action against the minutemen.
-
-
Hard to put down
- By Mike From Mesa on 03-07-15
By: Nick Bunker
-
Railroaded
- The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
- By: Richard White
- Narrated by: Paul Woodson
- Length: 23 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The transcontinental railroads of the late 19th century were the first corporate behemoths. Their attempts to generate profits from proliferating debt sparked devastating panics in the US economy. Their dependence on public largess drew them into the corridors of power, initiating new forms of corruption. Their operations rearranged space and time, and remade the landscape of the West. As wheel and rail, car and coal, they opened new worlds of work and ways of life.
-
-
Correcting the Myth of the Transcontinentals
- By Keith on 06-23-18
By: Richard White
-
Breaking Rockefeller
- The Incredible Story of the Ambitious Rivals Who Toppled an Oil Empire
- By: Peter B. Doran
- Narrated by: Peter B. Doran
- Length: 9 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Marcus Samuel, Jr., is an unorthodox Jewish merchant trader. Henri Deterding is a take-no-prisoners oilman. In 1889 John D. Rockefeller is at the peak of his power. Having annihilated all competition and possessing near-total domination of the market, even the US government is wary of challenging the great "anaconda" of Standard Oil. The Standard never loses - that is, until Samuel and Deterding team up to form Royal Dutch Shell.
-
-
Tale of business, cultures, dances as it teaches
- By Philo on 05-25-16
By: Peter B. Doran
-
Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
-
-
He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
-
The Money Men
- Capitalism, Democracy, and the Hundred Years' War over the American Dollar
- By: H. W. Brands
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 5 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A best-selling historian's gripping account of the powerful men who controlled America's financial destiny. From the first days of the United States, a battle raged over money. On one side were the democrats, who wanted cheap money and feared the concentration of financial interests in the hands of a few. On the other were the capitalists who sought the soundness of a national bank and the profits that came with it.
-
-
Not clear what this book is really about
- By Chris on 07-03-08
By: H. W. Brands
-
Imperial Twilight
- The Opium War and the End of China's Last Golden Age
- By: Stephen R. Platt
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As one of the most potent turning points in the country's modern history, the Opium War has since come to stand for everything that today's China seeks to put behind it. In this dramatic, epic story, award-winning historian Stephen Platt sheds new light on the early attempts by Western traders and missionaries to "open" China even as China's imperial rulers were struggling to manage their country's decline and Confucian scholars grappled with how to use foreign trade to China's advantage.
-
-
Balanced readable narrative about the Opium Wars
- By Carl A. Gallozzi on 09-05-18
By: Stephen R. Platt
-
The House of Morgan
- An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P.Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece.
-
-
The construction of the House of Morgan
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-18
By: Ron Chernow
-
Rising Tide
- The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America
- By: John M. Barry
- Narrated by: Barry Grizzard
- Length: 4 hrs and 48 mins
- Abridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An American epic of science, politics, race, honor, high society, and the Mississippi River, Rising Tide tells the riveting and nearly forgotten story of the greatest natural disaster this country has ever known, the Mississippi flood of 1927. The river inundated the homes of nearly one million people, helped elect Huey Long governor and made Herbert Hoover president, drove hundreds of thousands of blacks north, and transformed American society and politics forever.
-
-
Where is the rest of the book?
- By Susie on 10-21-13
By: John M. Barry
-
Gotham
- A History of New York City to 1898
- By: Edwin G. Burrows, Mike Wallace
- Narrated by: Victor Bevine
- Length: 67 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Gotham, Edwin G. Burrows and Mike Wallace have produced a monumental work of history, one that ranges from the Indian tribes that settled in and around the island of Manna-hata, to the consolidation of the five boroughs into Greater New York in 1898. It is an epic narrative, a story as vast and as varied as the city it chronicles, and it underscores that the history of New York is the story of our nation. The events and people who crowd this audiobook guarantee that this is no mere local history. It is in fact a portrait of the heart and soul of America....
-
-
THANK YOU!!!!!
- By Stephen F (SPFJR) on 09-29-18
By: Edwin G. Burrows, and others
-
The Path Between the Seas
- The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914
- By: David McCullough
- Narrated by: Nelson Runger
- Length: 31 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Path Between the Seas tells the story of the men and women who fought against all odds to fulfill the 400-year-old dream of constructing an aquatic passageway between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is a story of astonishing engineering feats, tremendous medical accomplishments, political power plays, heroic successes, and tragic failures. McCullough expertly weaves the many strands of this momentous event into a captivating tale.
-
-
No Stone Unturned
- By Tim on 06-25-13
By: David McCullough
-
Our Man in Charleston
- Britain's Secret Agent in the Civil War South
- By: Christopher Dickey
- Narrated by: Antony Ferguson
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The unlikely man at the roiling center of this intrigue was Robert Bunch, an American-born Englishman who had maneuvered his way to the position of British consul in Charleston, South Carolina, and grew to loathe slavery and the righteousness of its practitioners. Bunch used his unique perch and boundless ambition to become a key player, sending reams of dispatches to the home government and eventually becoming the Crown's best secret source on the Confederacy.
-
-
Not a spy novel
- By Michael Battle on 06-21-16
-
Hoover
- An Extraordinary Life in Extraordinary Times
- By: Kenneth Whyte
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 27 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The definitive biography of Herbert Hoover, one of the most remarkable Americans of the 20th century - a revisionist account that will forever change the way Americans understand the man, his presidency, and his battle against the Great Depression. A poor orphan who built a fortune, a great humanitarian, a president elected in a landslide and then routed in the next election, arguably the father of both New Deal liberalism and modern conservatism - Herbert Hoover is also one of our least understood presidents.
-
-
What a fascinating story!
- By Dan Ryan on 11-18-17
By: Kenneth Whyte
-
Prince of Darkness
- The Untold Story of Jeremiah G. Hamilton, Wall Street's First Black Millionaire
- By: Shane White
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 12 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Prince of Darkness, a groundbreaking and vivid account, eminent historian Shane White reveals the larger-than-life story of a man who defied every convention of his time. He wheeled and dealed in the lily-white business world, he married a White woman, he bought a mansion in rural New Jersey, he owned railroad stock on trains he was not legally allowed to ride, and generally he set his White contemporaries' teeth on edge when he wasn't just plain outsmarting them.
-
-
Not A Nice Man, But A Smart One!
- By AlTonya on 07-28-17
By: Shane White
-
Once in Golconda
- A True Drama of Wall Street 1920-1928
- By: John Brooks
- Narrated by: Johnny Heller
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Once in Golconda is a dramatic chronicle of the breathtaking rise, devastating fall, and painstaking rebirth of Wall Street in the years between the wars. Focusing on the lives and fortunes of some of the era's most memorable traders, bankers, boosters, and frauds, John Brooks brings to vivid life all the ruthlessness, greed, and reckless euphoria of the '20s bull market, the desperation of the days leading up to the crash of '29, and the bitterness of the years that followed.
-
-
A must read for investors
- By Brad Gillespie on 06-07-15
By: John Brooks
-
New World Coming
- The 1920s and the Making of Modern America
- By: Nathan Miller
- Narrated by: Lloyd James
- Length: 18 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jazz. Bootleggers. Flappers. Talkies. Model T Fords. Lindbergh's history-making flight over the Atlantic. The 1920s was also the decade of the hard-won vote for women, racial injustice, censorship, social conflict, and the birth of organized crime.
-
-
My High School History Class Never Told
- By Charles Stembridge on 06-29-04
By: Nathan Miller
-
Jacksonland
- President Andrew Jackson, Cherokee Chief John Ross, and a Great American Land Grab
- By: Steve Inskeep
- Narrated by: Steve Inskeep
- Length: 11 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jacksonland is the thrilling narrative history of two men - President Andrew Jackson and Cherokee chief John Ross - who led their respective nations at a crossroads of American history. Five decades after the Revolutionary War, the United States approached a constitutional crisis. At its center stood two former military comrades locked in a struggle that tested the boundaries of our fledgling democracy. Jacksonland is their story.
-
-
Fantastic and Thoughtful
- By Elizabeth Westbrook on 05-05-16
By: Steve Inskeep
-
Diamonds, Gold, and War
- The British, the Boers, and the Making of South Africa
- By: Martin Meredith
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 19 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Southern Africa was once regarded as a worthless jumble of British colonies, Boer republics, and African chiefdoms, a troublesome region of little interest to the outside world. But then prospectors chanced upon the world’s richest deposits of diamonds and gold, setting off a titanic struggle between the British and the Boers for control of the land. The result was the costliest, bloodiest, and most humiliating war that Britain had waged in nearly a century, and the devastation of the Boer republics.
-
-
Engrossing story on the evolution of the modern SA
- By Cary on 05-23-14
By: Martin Meredith
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Andrew Carnegie
- By: David Nasaw
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 32 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Scottish-born son of a failed weaver and a mother who supported the family by binding shoes, Andrew Carnegie was the embodiment of the American dream. In his rise from a job as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory to being the richest man in the world, he was single-minded, relentless and a major player in some of the most violent and notorious labor strikes of the time. The prototype of today's billionaire, he was a visionary in the way he earned his money and in the way he gave it away.
-
-
Andrew Carnegie
- By Peggie on 10-01-07
By: David Nasaw
-
Mellon
- An American Life
- By: David Cannadine
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 35 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landmark work from one of the preeminent historians of our time: the first published biography of Andrew W. Mellon, the American colossus who bestrode the worlds of industry, government, and philanthropy, leaving his transformative stamp on each. Following a boyhood in 19th-century Pittsburgh, during which he learned from his Scotch-Irish immigrant father the lessons of self-sufficiency and wealth accumulation, Andrew Mellon overcame painful shyness to become one of America's greatest financiers.
-
-
Fascinating and Detailed Biography
- By Nostromo on 04-17-07
By: David Cannadine
-
The Tycoons
- How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The modern American economy was the creation of four men: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. They were the giants of the Gilded Age, a moment of riotous growth that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet. Acclaimed author Charles R. Morris vividly brings these men and their times to life. The Tycoons tells the incredible story of how these four determined men wrenched the economy into the modern age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined earlier.
-
-
Good book wrong title
- By Hectoris on 10-06-16
-
The People's Tycoon
- Henry Ford and the American Century
- By: Steven Watts
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 29 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How a Michigan farm boy became the richest man in America is a classic, almost mythic tale, but never before has Henry Ford's outsized genius been brought to life so vividly as it is in this engaging and superbly researched biography. The real Henry Ford was a tangle of contradictions. He set off the consumer revolution by producing a car affordable to the masses, all the while lamenting the moral toll exacted by consumerism.
-
-
50% Longer than it needed to be.
- By Chris on 04-06-13
By: Steven Watts
-
Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
-
-
He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
-
The House of Morgan
- An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P.Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece.
-
-
The construction of the House of Morgan
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-18
By: Ron Chernow
-
Andrew Carnegie
- By: David Nasaw
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 32 hrs and 40 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Scottish-born son of a failed weaver and a mother who supported the family by binding shoes, Andrew Carnegie was the embodiment of the American dream. In his rise from a job as a bobbin boy in a cotton factory to being the richest man in the world, he was single-minded, relentless and a major player in some of the most violent and notorious labor strikes of the time. The prototype of today's billionaire, he was a visionary in the way he earned his money and in the way he gave it away.
-
-
Andrew Carnegie
- By Peggie on 10-01-07
By: David Nasaw
-
Mellon
- An American Life
- By: David Cannadine
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 35 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A landmark work from one of the preeminent historians of our time: the first published biography of Andrew W. Mellon, the American colossus who bestrode the worlds of industry, government, and philanthropy, leaving his transformative stamp on each. Following a boyhood in 19th-century Pittsburgh, during which he learned from his Scotch-Irish immigrant father the lessons of self-sufficiency and wealth accumulation, Andrew Mellon overcame painful shyness to become one of America's greatest financiers.
-
-
Fascinating and Detailed Biography
- By Nostromo on 04-17-07
By: David Cannadine
-
The Tycoons
- How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
- By: Charles R. Morris
- Narrated by: William Hughes
- Length: 14 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The modern American economy was the creation of four men: Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan. They were the giants of the Gilded Age, a moment of riotous growth that established America as the richest, most inventive, and most productive country on the planet. Acclaimed author Charles R. Morris vividly brings these men and their times to life. The Tycoons tells the incredible story of how these four determined men wrenched the economy into the modern age, inventing a nation of full economic participation that could not have been imagined earlier.
-
-
Good book wrong title
- By Hectoris on 10-06-16
-
The People's Tycoon
- Henry Ford and the American Century
- By: Steven Watts
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 29 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How a Michigan farm boy became the richest man in America is a classic, almost mythic tale, but never before has Henry Ford's outsized genius been brought to life so vividly as it is in this engaging and superbly researched biography. The real Henry Ford was a tangle of contradictions. He set off the consumer revolution by producing a car affordable to the masses, all the while lamenting the moral toll exacted by consumerism.
-
-
50% Longer than it needed to be.
- By Chris on 04-06-13
By: Steven Watts
-
Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Titan is the first full-length biography based on unrestricted access to Rockefeller’s exceptionally rich trove of papers. A landmark publication full of startling revelations, the book indelibly alters our image of this most enigmatic capitalist. Born the son of a flamboyant, bigamous snake-oil salesman and a pious, straitlaced mother, Rockefeller rose from rustic origins to become the world’s richest man by creating America’s most powerful and feared monopoly, Standard Oil. Branded "the Octopus" by legions of muckrakers, the trust refined and marketed nearly 90 percent of the oil produced in America.
-
-
He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
-
The House of Morgan
- An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 34 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A gripping history of banking and the booms and busts that shaped the world on both sides of the Atlantic, The House of Morgan traces the trajectory of the J. P.Morgan empire from its obscure beginnings in Victorian London to the crash of 1987. Ron Chernow paints a fascinating portrait of the private saga of the Morgans and the rarefied world of the American and British elite in which they moved. Based on extensive interviews and access to the family and business archives, The House of Morgan is an investigative masterpiece.
-
-
The construction of the House of Morgan
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-18
By: Ron Chernow
-
The Rothschilds
- A Family Portrait
- By: Frederic Morton
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 11 hrs and 16 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
No family in the past two centuries has been as constantly at the center of Europe's great events, has featured such varied and spectacular personalities, has had anything close to the wealth of the Rothschilds. To this day they remain one of the most powerful and wealthy families in the world. In Frederic Morton's classic tale, the family is brought vividly to life.
-
-
Engaging read but dubious sentiment
- By T.G. on 04-23-20
By: Frederic Morton
-
Custer's Trials
- A Life on the Frontier of a New America
- By: T.J. Stiles
- Narrated by: Arthur Morey
- Length: 23 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for History. In this magisterial biography, T. J. Stiles paints a portrait of Custer both deeply personal and sweeping in scope, proving how much of Custer’s legacy has been ignored. He demolishes Custer’s historical caricature, revealing a volatile, contradictory, intense person - capable yet insecure, intelligent yet bigoted, passionate yet self-destructive, a romantic individualist at odds with the institution of the military (he was court-martialed twice in six years).
-
-
Custer and his times
- By Mike From Mesa on 11-17-15
By: T.J. Stiles
-
American Rascal
- How Jay Gould Built Wall Street's Biggest Fortune
- By: Greg Steinmetz
- Narrated by: Feodor Chin
- Length: 8 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Had Jay Gould put his name on a university or concert hall, he would undoubtedly have been a household name today. The son of a poor farmer whose early life was marked by tragedy, Gould saw money as the means to give his family a better life…even if, to do so, he had to pull a fast one on everyone else.
-
-
Questionable
- By Stan on 07-19-23
By: Greg Steinmetz
-
Jesse James
- Last Rebel of the Civil War
- By: T. J. Stiles
- Narrated by: Christopher Lane
- Length: 18 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this brilliant biography T. J. Stiles offers a new understanding of the legendary outlaw Jesse James. Although he has often been portrayed as a Robin Hood of the old west, in this ground-breaking work Stiles places James within the context of the bloody conflicts of the Civil War to reveal a much more complicated and significant figure.
-
-
Borderline woke retelling of the era JJ live in
- By Rodney on 08-24-22
By: T. J. Stiles
-
The Warburgs
- The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Jonathan Reese
- Length: 35 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Bankers, philanthropists, scholars, socialites, artists, and politicians, the Warburgs stood at the pinnacle of German (and, later, German American) Jewry. They forged economic dynasties, built mansions and estates, assembled libraries, endowed charities, and advised a German kaiser and two American presidents. But their very success made the Warburgs lightning rods for anti-Semitism, and their sense of patriotism became increasingly dangerous in a Germany that had declared Jews the enemy.
-
-
The Warburg's Dynamic Family History
- By Darwin8u on 10-22-18
By: Ron Chernow
-
Vanderbilt
- The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty
- By: Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe
- Narrated by: Anderson Cooper
- Length: 8 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times best-selling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty - his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts.
-
-
Interesting Approach to a Well Known History
- By HistoryNerd on 09-24-21
By: Anderson Cooper, and others
-
The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and The Gospel of Wealth
- By: Andrew Carnegie
- Narrated by: John Lescault
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
His good friend Mark Twain dubbed him "St. Andrew." British Prime Minister William Gladstone called him an "example" for the wealthy. Such terms seldom apply to multimillionaires. But Andrew Carnegie was no run-of-the-mill steel magnate. At age 13 and full of dreams, he sailed from his native Dunfermline, Scotland, to America. Here, in one volume, are two impressive works by Andrew Carnegie himself: his autobiography and The Gospel of Wealth, a groundbreaking manifesto on the duty of the wealthy to give back to society all of their fortunes.
-
-
Top 5 Books
- By Chelle Grunberg on 12-31-18
By: Andrew Carnegie
-
Cornelius Vanderbilt - The Commodore: Insight and Analysis Into the Life and Success of America's First Tycoon
- Business Biographies and Memoirs - Titans of Industry
- By: J.R. MacGregor
- Narrated by: Kevin Kollins
- Length: 3 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Cornelius Vanderbilt I had no illusions about his life. He didn’t start out with grand plans and ungodly greed. He merely stepped in this world one foot at a time, one boat at a time, one market at a time - one day at a time. He worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week. He worked hard and played hard. When all was said and done, though, he was a simple man who pushed the world of transportation to be all it could be - to be what it is today. Vanderbilt was a man of steel, and we can learn incredible things from him.
-
-
Bravo
- By Arthur Starnes on 09-18-19
By: J.R. MacGregor
-
My Life and Work
- By: Henry Ford, Samuel Crowther
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 10 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The book that has inspired entrepreneurs for generations, not only is My Life and Work by Henry Ford a memoir of an American icon but it also shows the spirit that built America. Written in 1922, this work provides a unique insight into the observations, ideas, and problem-solving skills of this remarkable man.
-
-
Surprising. The man is incapable of fluff.
- By Kindle Customer on 02-28-19
By: Henry Ford, and others
-
Invested
- Changing Forever the Way Americans Invest
- By: Charles Schwab
- Narrated by: Fred Sanders
- Length: 11 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In this deeply personal memoir, Schwab describes his passion to have Main Street participate in the growing economy as investors and owners, not only earners. Schwab opens up about his dyslexia and how he worked around and ultimately embraced it, and about the challenges he faced while starting his fledgling company in the 1970s. A year into his grand experiment in discounted stock trading, living in a small apartment in Sausalito with his wife, Helen, and new baby, he carried a six-figure debt and a pocketful of personal loans.
-
-
Seeing through the entrepreneur’s eyes
- By Gregory Albiani on 10-14-19
By: Charles Schwab
-
The Money Kings
- The Epic Story of the Jewish Immigrants Who Transformed Wall Street and Shaped Modern America
- By: Daniel Schulman
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 22 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joseph Seligman arrived in the United States in 1837, with the equivalent of $100 sewn into the lining of his pants. Then came the Lehman brothers, who would open a general store in Montgomery, Alabama. Not far behind were Solomon Loeb and Marcus Goldman, among the “Forty-Eighters” fleeing a Germany that had relegated Jews to an underclass.
-
-
Great Book on Wallstreet history
- By Ashley Celestine on 10-31-24
By: Daniel Schulman
-
The Patriarch
- The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy
- By: David Nasaw
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 30 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joseph Patrick Kennedy - whose life spanned the First World War, the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression, the Second World War, and the Cold War - was the patriarch of America’s greatest political dynasty. The father of President John F. Kennedy and Senators Robert and Edward Kennedy, 'Joe' Kennedy was an indomitable and elusive figure whose dreams of advancement for his nine children were matched only by his extraordinary personal ambition and shrewd financial skills.
-
-
Commissioned by the Kennedy Family...
- By E.R. on 09-09-13
By: David Nasaw
What listeners say about The First Tycoon
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Danny Alvarez
- 05-14-11
The First Tycoon: Cornelius Vanderbilt
A great example of American history. This book includes details at just the right pace.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Adam Rauscher
- 06-12-19
A great history of Vanderbilt goes a little long
Great performance, excellent writing, but the story of Vanderbilt stops being interesting around 1860. The chapter on Nicaragua is fascinating.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Dale Sarver
- 04-13-20
long but good
the. complete history of Cornelius Vanderbilt from cradle to grave. it traces his rise to the most powerful businessman in the world.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- chris
- 10-18-13
Epic account of an American business legend
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Yes. It is historically accurate and presents both personal and business views of the character which allows the listener to fully develop an understanding of the persona of the first Vanderbilt. Like his type or not, remember he did business in a different time and the results often created wealth and livelihood for many. Besides the account of his life, this book describes well the times in which he lived.
What did you like best about this story?
Story did not drift from the chronological events that made up the life of the character. It is just the facts. ma'am.
What about Mark Deakins’s performance did you like?
Characterizations
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Vanderbilt's favoritism of one child over others
Any additional comments?
Long but worth the listen especially for business historians
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
- Paul Hall
- 08-06-17
loved it
good book about one of the original robber barons from steam boats to rail roads.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Alan
- 10-07-23
The most interesting econ course you'll ever take
I enjoy reading biographies of influential people and expected to learn about another businessman's life with this book, which I did. What I did not expect was to develop a much better understanding of capitalism, American history, and economics along the way. The riveting story of Cornelius Vanderbilt helped me understand corporate structure, macroeconomics, and the nature of competition in business. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and hope to read it again in a few years.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Nancy
- 06-09-12
The start of modern American business
While a little long, this book tells about the rise of one of our greatest entrepreneurs. I really did not know much about the Vanderbilts and Cornelius' influence on modern transportation. I am a bit of a history fan so may not be for everyone but I highly recommend it for a detailed discussion of the beginnings of the Vanderbilt fortune. Narrator is good so it is easy to listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- WZ
- 08-17-19
Even/fair and informative/interesting
I rate this biography just about perfect. The treatment of a highly complicated man is even/fair and informative/interesting. Never dull.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- William Cole
- 12-14-16
Loved it!
For a history buff, this was an excellent book. It combined the personal and business life of Vanderbilt perfectly, and spun them together with the political and historical context. It was clearly well-researched, and flew counter to other historical analyses of Vanderbilt based on Stiles' more complete study of his subject. Deakins' performance could be a bit monotone at times, but he seemed to come more alive as the biography progressed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Carolyn
- 04-20-13
Love the history... thorough profile of the man
Great story....could have been better written. While I appreciate the old world language and the authenticity of the descriptions, I would have preferred the author come back to the present day language once in awhile. I think the change in language would have made the book easier to plow through....its quite a tome and requires endurance to finish. I own a home in Asheville where Vanderbilt's grandson built a beautiful "castle". I've always wondered about the origin of the money and the sensibilities that allowed such a grand vision come to fruition.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!