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Mellon
- An American Life
- Narrated by: John H. Mayer
- Length: 35 hrs and 57 mins
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Publisher's summary
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. Across an unusually diverse range of enterprises, from banking to oil to aluminum manufacture, he built a legendary personal fortune, tracking America's course to global economic supremacy. The Mellon way was to hold companies closely, including such iconic enterprises as Alcoa and Gulf Oil.
Personal happiness eluded Mellon, however: his loveless marriage at 45 to a British girl less than half his age ended in a scandalous divorce, and for all his best efforts, he would remain a stranger to his children. He had been bred to do one thing, and that he did with brilliant and innovative entrepreneurship. Collecting art, a pursuit inspired by his close friend Henry Clay Frick, would become his only nonprofessional gratification. And by the end of his life, Mellon's "pictures" would constitute one of the world's foremost private collections.
The issues Andrew W. Mellon confronted, concerning government, business, influence, the individual and the public good, remain at the center of our national discourse to this day. Indeed, the positions he steadfastly held reemerged relatively intact with the Reagan revolution, having lain dormant since the New Deal. David Cannadine's magisterial biography brings to life a towering, controversial figure, casting new light on our history and the evolution of our public values.
Critic reviews
"Lavish....Insightful....Grand successes and epic failures, engrossingly recounted....Emphasizes the man rather than the money." (Kirkus)
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- Narrated by: Stephen Hoye
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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It is commonly believed that the Great Depression that began in 1929 resulted from a confluence of events beyond any one person's or government's control. In fact, as Liaquat Ahamed reveals, it was the decisions made by a small number of central bankers that were the primary cause of the economic meltdown, the effects of which set the stage for World War II and reverberated for decades.
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interesting insight into interwar period!
- By Toru on 11-27-09
By: Liaquat Ahamed
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The Hour of Fate
- Theodore Roosevelt, J.P. Morgan, and the Battle to Transform American Capitalism
- By: Susan Berfield
- Narrated by: Jennifer Woodward
- Length: 11 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
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A riveting narrative of Wall Street buccaneering, political intrigue and two of American history’s most colossal characters, struggling for mastery in an era of social upheaval and rampant inequality. Today, as the country again asks whether saving democracy means taming capital, the lessons of Roosevelt and Morgan’s time are more urgent than ever.
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Engaging
- By Jean on 06-08-20
By: Susan Berfield
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Grand Pursuit
- The Story of Economic Genius
- By: Sylvia Nasar
- Narrated by: John Bedford Lloyd, Anne Twomey
- Length: 20 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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In a sweeping narrative, the author of the mega-bestseller A Beautiful Mind takes us on a journey through modern history with the men and women who changed the lives of every single person on the planet. It’s the epic story of the making of modern economics, and of how it rescued mankind from squalor and deprivation by placing its material fate in its own hands rather than in Fate. Nasar’s account begins with Charles Dickens and Henry Mayhew observing and publishing the condition of the poor majority in mid nineteenth-century London, the richest and most glittering place in the world.
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A Beautiful Grand Pursuit
- By Joshua Kim on 05-06-12
By: Sylvia Nasar
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Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
- By: Ron Chernow
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 35 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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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.
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He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
- By Rick on 11-04-13
By: Ron Chernow
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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
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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.
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A must read for investors
- By Brad Gillespie on 06-07-15
By: John Brooks
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America's Bank
- The Epic Struggle to Create the Federal Reserve
- By: Roger Lowenstein
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 9 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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A tour de force of historical reportage, America’s Bank illuminates the tumultuous era and remarkable personalities that spurred the unlikely birth of America’s modern central bank, the Federal Reserve. Today, the Fed is the bedrock of the financial landscape, yet the fight to create it was so protracted and divisive that it seems a small miracle that it was ever established. For nearly a century, America, alone among developed nations, refused to consider any central or organizing agency in its financial system.
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Important and Intriguing
- By Jean on 11-02-15
By: Roger Lowenstein
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On Corruption in America
- And What Is at Stake
- By: Sarah Chayes
- Narrated by: Sarah Chayes
- Length: 12 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
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In this unflinching exploration of corruption in America, Chayes exposes how corruption has thrived within our borders - from the titans of America's Gilded Age (Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, J.P. Morgan, et al.) to the collapse of the stock market in 1929, the Great Depression, and FDR's New Deal; from Joe Kennedy's years of banking, bootlegging, machine politics, and pursuit of infinite wealth to the deregulation of the Reagan Revolution - undermining this nation's proud middle class and union members.
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Profoundly ambitious and genuine yet...
- By Jerry A. Boriskin on 08-16-20
By: Sarah Chayes
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The Forgotten Depression
- 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself
- By: James Grant
- Narrated by: Rick Adamson
- Length: 9 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1920-1921, Woodrow Wilson and Warren G. Harding met a deep economic slump by seeming to ignore it, implementing policies that most 21st-century economists would call backward. Confronted with plunging prices, wages, and employment, the government balanced the budget and, through the Federal Reserve, raised interest rates. No "stimulus" was administered, and a powerful, job-filled recovery was under way by late 1921. Yet by 1929, the economy spiraled downward as the Hoover administration adopted the policies that Wilson and Harding had declined to put in place.
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Best thinking-sharpener I know of
- By Philo on 03-11-20
By: James Grant
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The New Deal
- A Modern History
- By: Michael Hiltzik
- Narrated by: Traber Burns
- Length: 19 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
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As America struggles with an economic debacle akin to the Great Depression, nothing could be timelier than an authoritative account of the New Deal, masterfully written by Michael Hiltzik, author of the acclaimed history of the Hoover Dam, Colossus.
In this richly peopled, vividly rendered narrative, Hiltzik describes how the urgent short-term relief measures of Franklin Roosevelt’s Hundred Days evolved into a transformative concept of the federal role in American life.
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Another Excellent New Deal History
- By R.S. on 12-19-11
By: Michael Hiltzik
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The Chief
- The Life of William Randolph Hearst
- By: David Nasaw
- Narrated by: David Colacci
- Length: 30 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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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.
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Fascinating but
- By Michael on 02-17-22
By: David Nasaw
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Louis D. Brandeis
- A Life
- By: Melvin I Urofsky
- Narrated by: Sean Pratt
- Length: 35 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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The first full-scale biography in 25 years of one of the most important and distinguished justices to sit on the Supreme Court - an audiobook that reveals Louis D. Brandeis the reformer, lawyer, and jurist, and Brandeis the man, in all of his complexity, passion, and wit. As a lawyer in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, he pioneered how modern law is practiced.
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a Listen to Louis D. Brandeis
- By J on 07-11-10
By: Melvin I Urofsky
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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.
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The First Tycoon
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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.
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Great! If you can get through it...
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The House of Morgan
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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.
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50% Longer than it needed to be.
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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.
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Fascinating but
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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.
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Great! If you can get through it...
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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.
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Good book wrong title
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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.
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Commissioned by the Kennedy Family...
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The Autobiography of Andrew Carnegie and The Gospel of Wealth
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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.
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Top 5 Books
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Morgan: American Financier
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In Morgan, noted biographer Jean Strouse creates the first complete portrait of a man who defined American commerce and banking. Contemporaries described J. Pierpoint Morgan as “the financial Moses of the New World.” She shows J.Pierpoint Morgan in the full context of his childhood and health, travels and tastes, personal affairs and business relationships. And through Nelson Runger’s thoughtful narration, this accessible biography becomes a fascinating audio production.
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A masterfull biography
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The Rothschilds
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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.
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Engaging read but dubious sentiment
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By: Frederic Morton
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Titan
- The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.
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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.
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He makes Bill Gates look like a Pauper!
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Inside Money
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In Inside Money, acclaimed historian, commentator, and former financial executive Zachary Karabell offers the first full and frank look inside this institution against the backdrop of American history. Blessed with complete access to the company's archives, as well as a thrilling understanding of the larger forces at play, Karabell has created an X-ray of American power - financial, political, cultural - as it has evolved from the early 1800s to the present.
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Brilliant, well researched & highly insightful
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The Sassoons
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A spectacular generational saga of the making (and undoing) of a family dynasty: the riveting untold story of the gilded Jewish Bagdadi Sassoons, who built a vast empire through global finance and trade—cotton, opium, shipping, banking—that reached across three continents and ultimately changed the destinies of nations. With full access to rare family photographs and archives.
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More variety
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Edison
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Although Thomas Alva Edison was the most famous American of his time, and remains an international name today, he is mostly remembered only for the gift of universal electric light. His invention of the first practical incandescent lamp 140 years ago so dazzled the world - already reeling from his invention of the phonograph and dozens of other revolutionary devices - that it cast a shadow over his later achievements. In all, this near-deaf genius patented 1,093 inventions, not including others, such as the X-ray fluoroscope, that he left unlicensed for the benefit of medicine.
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Editors should stand up to Pulitzer winner
- By Porter on 12-03-19
By: Edmund Morris
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The Wealth and Poverty of Nations
- Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor
- By: David S. Landes
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 21 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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The Wealth and Poverty of Nations is David S. Landes' acclaimed, best-selling exploration of one of the most contentious and hotly debated questions of our time: Why do some nations achieve economic success while others remain mired in poverty? The answer, as Landes definitively illustrates, is a complex interplay of cultural mores and historical circumstance.
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A detailed explanation
- By Kaarlis on 12-07-21
By: David S. Landes
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Kochland
- The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America
- By: Christopher Leonard
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 23 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Performance
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Story
Just as Steve Coll told the story of globalization through ExxonMobil and Andrew Ross Sorkin told the story of Wall Street excess through Too Big to Fail, Christopher Leonard’s Kochland uses the extraordinary account of how the biggest private company in the world grew to be that big to tell the story of modern corporate America.
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An anti-capitalism treatise
- By Luis on 10-01-19
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American Caesar
- Douglas MacArthur 1880-1964
- By: William Manchester
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 31 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Virtually all Americans above a certain age hold strong opinions about Douglas MacArthur. They either worship him or despise him. Now, in this superb book, one of our most outstanding writers, after a meticulous three-year examination of the record, presents his startling insights about the man. The narrative is gripping, because the general's life was fascinating. It is moving, because he was a man of vision. It ends, finally, in tragedy, because his character, though majestic, was tragically flawed.
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A Great American
- By Charlotte A. Hu on 05-19-13
What listeners say about Mellon
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Nostromo
- 04-17-07
Fascinating and Detailed Biography
I must admit that before listening to this book I knew very little about Andrew Mellon. With the exception of Mellon Bank, Carnegie Mellon University and his service as US Secretary of the Treasury under 3 presidents, Andrew Mellon to me was a distant figure who ranked with the other plutocrats of the guilded age (Morgan, Frick, Rockefeller and Carnegie). This book was truly a revelation. It is a long listen but the narrator does an excellent job and the coverage of Mellon's life and ancestory is truly complete. I must admit that I found the latter part of the book (during which the author discusses Mellon's time in Washington while he served as Treasury Secretary (and for what it is worth, he not Ronald Reagan was the creater of Trickle Down Economics), his income tax trial, his fight with New Dealers and his work as founder of the National Gallery) to more interesting than the first part of the book where the author discusses his business career. Nevertheless I found this book to be extremely enlightening and worth listening to despite its being very long in length.
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19 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Qbook
- 09-07-07
A Great Business History
A very detailed history of the Mellon family (lots of time spent on the father), but more importantly, this is a description of the rise of American-style capitalism. David Cannadine is a historian with obviously great research skills. This audio book tops 36 hours and I found every minute of it to be interesting. I'm so sick of journalist writing shallow books on topics they only have a passing interest in (and zero research ability beyond talking to someone who just so happens to want to sell something). Prof. Cannadine says the book was more than ten years in the making--I just wish we had more quality business history like this.
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12 people found this helpful
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- Jose
- 01-01-18
A Book Written by Very Ignorant Man
The narrator is great, John H. Mayer is a great voice for history. The writer is a silly nut.
The book is worthy of both the historical and finance reader. Thomas Mellon and his son Andrew Mellon are major contributors to the greatness of America in the early 1900's and to the great bounty we have today. Without, their stewardship of savings and many fledgling businesses, America would be less of a nation today. Add A. Carnegie, H. Ford, and JD Rockefeller to this list.
The author is historically un-informed as he uses the discredited work of Ida Tarbell and Lincoln Steffens to smear Mellon. The very foolish Lincoln Steffens actually praised the USSR as the future. Steffens was a committed Communist, but Cannadine uses him as an analyst of 1900's Pittsburgh. Today, how many people would want to live in Pittsburgh versus Stalin's Moscow. Even the Russians have a big community in Pittsburgh. Meanwhile, no Americans packed their bags to move to the USSR or even Putin's Russia today.
The author does not understand capital allocation or the creativity of business. If predicting future demand and running a business intelligently were common, anyone could open a market account and make big dollars, day-one...without education. The author thinks savings, investing, and running a business is not creative! Obviously, he does not know how the world actually works, he clearly shows his college professor mentality. His subject is a Leonardo da Vinci of American business and he calls him "philistine".
By the way, the Philistines were very smart people and we owe them for the much of the advancements we consider Greek, Roman, or Islamic today. These guys created the integrated civilizations and trading networks, of the Mediterranean we admire today.
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- Roger
- 07-31-14
Wonderful biography of a forgotten titan
The author does a wonderful job with the life of Thomas and Andrew Mellon presenting the essence of what it took to build the family fortune. He presents a good analysis of the sacrifices necessary and emotional/personality holes in A.W.'s psyche and some of their consequences on him and his family. Of the biographies of the great industrialists I've read, this one is the most interesting due to the varied life A.W. led and the story that was told of a nearly completely forgotten titan.
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- ldipod
- 01-25-08
Mellon Biography is one of the best
The biography of Andrew Mellon is one of the best written biographies that I have ever read. The story of the man laced with the history of his incredible 82 years is literally a page turner. The reader is one of the best.
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- Warren
- 04-20-07
Great Book
The author did an excellant job on protraying Andrew Mellon, although it is very dificult to write a biography on a person and really catch the human nature of the person, since humans are very complex, but this book did an excellant job of bringing forward Andrew Mellon as living complex person. I really enjoy the beginning with Mellon's Ancestory, it help me to understand the movement and events that shape the lives of people in Pittsburgh Pa., in the 1800's. It is also of interest the latter part of the book to understand how his philosophies continue down to our day. I would highly recommend this book.
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- Lars Tackmann
- 06-22-15
Good biography
Mellon is a good biography about a life of a known man whose life until now remained obscure. Somehow the story falls short of other biographies of melons contemporaries such as Rockefeller. Perhaps this is just due to the nature of its subject but it's still disappointing to not know more about the feelings and thoughts of a player so closely linked to the Great Depression and old fashioned anti-Union capitalism. However it's still
A worthwhile read and a glimpse into an area that disappeared along with Mellon himself.
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- GBecker
- 03-14-15
Long, but good.
The book is extremely thorough. The author is quite skillful in his writing, but the book is almost too long. Also the narrator reads horribly slow. Set it to 1.25x speed and its perfect.
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- Robert Holman
- 04-18-11
Slow start strong finish
A beneficiary of the American Capitalist system who honorably used it to his advantage then created a lasting legacy. Gives one a new understanding of Washington DC.
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- Robert
- 08-03-14
Fascinating life
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
Absolutely
What does John H. Mayer bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
A great reader. Good inflection, soothing voice; one of your best
Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?
no
Any additional comments?
An extraordinarily and unexpectedly interesting biography of an important but little known or understood man.
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