Book Byte #311 "The First Tycoon" by T.J. Stiles

The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

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📣 Curious Quotes from the Author

“If he had learned anything from his parents, he learned that business was a matter of relationships.”

“He did have his beliefs, chiefly in his own genius.”

“Thanks in large part to reduced transportation costs, San Francisco matured from a dust-blown, mud-lined tent camp with gambling saloons into a brick-walled, warehouse-filled commercial center with gambling saloons.”

“Confrontation was the stuff of daily life.”

“The speed of transportation largely determined the speed of information.”

“He may have confused honor with with with ruthlessness.”

“What distinguished him in a moment of crisis was his self-command.”

“Americans from other regions, she wrote, described them “as sly, grinding, selfish, and tricking. The Yankees… will avow these qualities themselves with a complacent smile, and boast that no people on earth can match them at over-reaching in a bargain.” It was a curious kind of vanity, she observed; if you listened to a Yankee describe himself, “you might fancy him a god—though a tricky one.”

“IT IS AS IF WE ALL CARRY in our makeup the effects of accidents that have befallen our ancestors,” writes V. S. Naipaul,”

“The prosperity of a nation’s commerce cannot be durable, unless it be founded upon a solid basis,” Rochefoucauld-Liancourt warned; “and the solid basis of a nation’s commerce is the produce of its soil, of its manufactures.”

📚 Cognition of the Book’s Big Idea

Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt is a legendary figure in America, having founded a family, constructed the first Grand Central, and amassed an unfathomably large fortune. From boatman to builder of the country's largest fleet of steamships to king of a railroad empire, he ascended from humble beginnings on Staten Island during the reign of George Washington.

Victoria Woodhull, the first female U.S. presidential candidate, served as his spiritual advisor; Jay Gould was his uncomfortable buddy before becoming his sworn enemy; and Lincoln advised him on steamship strategy during the Civil War. Vanderbilt is seen as having contributed to the beginning of the Gold Rush, the transportation revolution, the transformation of Manhattan, and the creation of the modern corporation—in fact, as T. J. Stiles persuasively contends that Vanderbilt contributed more than any other person to the development of the modern economy. Stiles provides the first thorough, authentic biography of this titan as well as the first in-depth account of the Commodore's private life in The First Tycoon. It is a broad, action-packed epic that paints a nuanced picture of the great man. Stiles demonstrates how Vanderbilt adopted the Jacksonian Democrats' mindset and resisted criticism from his conservative adversaries for being overly competitive. He invented business models and was a visionary.

He gained the admiration of New York's social elite as an untrained fistfighter. He was also a parent who battled a son who was addicted to gambling, a loving but violent husband, and an elderly guy who was fixated with communicating with the dead. The First Tycoon is a compelling biography of a man whose life was as epic and complicated as American history itself, and it tells the thrilling tale of a man and a country growing together.

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Until Tomorrow,
Jason (Founder Club255)