The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

In The First Tycoon, T.J Stiles offers the first complete, authoritative biography of Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt, and the first comprehensive account of his 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 opponents 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.

Author: T.J. Stiles

Type: Paperback