The First Tycoon

The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

By: T.J. Stiles

Narrated by: Mark Deakins

Length: 28 hrs and 45 mins

Publisher's summary

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 House

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

Long as hell but stellar stellar write

Dude, after reading Titan on John D Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegies autobio, and The Billionaire Who Wasn't, this was next up on the list. The men back in that time who built Americas infrastructure were men of iron. To be able to document that much about mans life shows he truly lived---- from working at a port to getting into the steamboat carrier business, to the rail lines in the end, he was most definitely a Tycoon.

A great read to follow up with is What Would the Rockefellars do showing what the JDR family did differently than the Commodors family to ensure their wealth lasted into future generations,,,,,,,, if I had to relisten to this, I prob would, just see how much a man can accomplish and even more so that it doesn't mean your wealth will carry on if you don't plan for it to long after you are there to manage it----

You better love steamships and trains

I rarely give up on a book, but I couldn’t get through the last 2 chapters. I don’t blame the book - I’m just not that passionate about railroad companies and consolidations of the 1800s to slog through the end. This book is meticulously researched and detailed — it was fine for someone like me for the first 75%. Then it just got mind numbingly tedious.

Excellent

An excellent, engaging, and comprehensive account of one of the patriarchs of the American economy.

Fantastic

I didn’t realize how much Vanderbilt had to do with American history. Excellent book to listen to.

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.

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.

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.

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.

An thorough and detailed biography

This is a very good one, I have listened to it three times. It is a very probing look at one of America’s first Giants of industry

Excellent story about a very interesting man

In addition to a great story about an American pioneer this is an interesting history lesson.