The First Tycoon
By Stiles, T.J.

-Maury Klein, author of The Life and Legend of Jay Gould

“T.J. Stiles writes with the magisterial sweep of a great historian and the keen psychological insight of a great biographer. The First Tycoon is the fullest, most perceptive chronicle ever written of the life and times of Cornelius Vanderbilt, the epitome of unfettered, winner-take-all capitalism. With panache and admirable ease, Stiles maps the financial and political currents on which Vanderbilt buccaneered and shows that it was Vanderbilt, more than anyone else, who enabled business to evolve into Big Business.”

-Patricia O’Toole, author of When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House

“T.J. Stiles has given us a balanced and absorbing biography of this colorful and often ruthless entrepreneur, the first of the ‘robber barons’ who transformed the American economy in the nineteenth century.”

-James M. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

“The First Tycoon is a brilliant exposition of the life of Cornelius Vanderbilt and the entrepreneurial environment that he shaped. Readers will look at Grand Central Station and much else in American life with fresh eyes.”

-Joyce Appleby, author of The Restless Revolution: A History of Capitalism

“The definitive biography of Commodore Vanderbilt. Both as portrait of an American original and as a book that brings to life an important slice of American history long neglected, this is biography at its very best. A magnificent achievement.”

-Arthur Vanderbilt II, author of Fortune’s Children: The Fall of the House of Vanderbilt

“Superbly written and researched . . . Worthy of its subject.”

-The Economist

“Shrewd . . . As he did in his much-acclaimed Jesse James, Stiles limns the meteoric career of an impetuous spirit. Rich in detail, the narrative reveals much about not only the unschooled genius . . . but also the national culture he helped transform . . . A landmark study.”

-Starred review, Booklist

“Rousing . . . An exemplary biography.”

-Starred review, Kirkus

“Thoroughly researched . . . Stiles meticulously separates myths from facts in a book that compares favorably with David Nasaw’s Andrew Carnegie . . . Dispassionately revising our portrait of Vanderbilt, Stiles has produced a work highly recommended.”

-Starred review, Library Journal

From the Hardcover edition.