“The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt”, which I finished earlier this year, is perhaps one of the best historical biography books I’ve read in a while.
Author T.J. Stiles, who is also a Columbia graduate and won the Pulitzer Prize for this book, has done a superb job of constructing a narrative not only based on Commodore’s* life events, but also social, political and economic developments of the day.
The First Tycoon describes an improbable life, from Vanderbilt’s humble birth during the presidency of George Washington to his death as one of the richest men in American history. In between we see how the Commodore helped to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation.
When I was reading the book, I couldn’t help but think that Commodore Vanderbilt was an inventor and pioneer of many business concepts including what today’s private equity companies refer to as “Value Creation”.
The book describes an improbable life, from Vanderbilt’s humble birth during the presidency of George Washington to his death as one of the richest men in American history.
He started in business world at a very young age, borrowing $100 from his mother to start a ferry service between Staten Island and Manhattan: this small venture led him to save enough money to buy his own boat and set the foundation for his shipping empire.
His ruthless approach and drive for improving efficiency resulted in Vanderbilt’s fleet to be more efficient than competitors; allowing him to reduce fares and drive rivals out of business.
He later ventured into railroads and with an appetite for using innovative technologies and his structured cost cutting process, created the most efficient railroad in the nation (New York Central).
I found The First Tycoon a great read for those interested in fields such as corporate strategy, value creation in private equity, game theory and geopolitical and economic history. Commodore is definitely an enigma when it comes to his personality and character even in his day, and Stiles’ book gets readers past hearsay and a bit closer to the man’s life and his contributions.
*****
Some side notes:
Stiles’ biography is an enormously detailed book. It becomes increasingly technical in the economic sense as Vanderbilt moves from steamboats (and his fascinating adventures in Nicaragua) to railroads. Stiles should get enormous credit not only for his superb research, but also for his objectivity about the man and his ability to make as clear as possible to the average reader the often complex financial issues of Vanderbilt’s life.
The author is also a smooth narrator. Chapters are divided into reasonable chunks separated by double spacing and the transitions and paragraph structures throughout the book are fluent and easy to follow. This is a biographical tour de force that showed me not just the life of a brilliant, often cold, but complex man but also how the economic history of America as we know it today originated.
*”The Commodore” was Cornelius Vanderbilt’s nickname.
