Joyce Appleby, author of The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism Readers will look at Grand Central Station and much else in American life with fresh eyes.” “A brilliant exposition of the life of Cornelius Vanderbilt and the entrepreneurial environment that he shaped. Patricia O’Toole, author of When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House 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.” “Stiles writes with the magisterial sweep of a great historian and the keen psychological insight of a great biographer. Maury Klein, author of The Life and Legend of Jay Gould “At long last a biography worthy of the Commodore, meticulously researched, superbly written, and filled with original insights.” Stiles draws on exhaustive archival research to clear away the apocryphal and celebrate Vanderbilt as an American icon.” resembles a five-course meal at a three-star restaurant: rich and pleasurable.” Stiles has a gift for making readers admire unsavory characters. McPherson, author of Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era

“Stiles has given us a balanced and absorbing biography of this colorful and often ruthless entrepreneur.” was the right man in the right place at the right time, and the meticulous Stiles seems to be the right man to tell us about it.” A reminder that Vanderbilt’s life and times still have much to teach us.” Stiles is a perceptive and witty writer with a remarkable ability to paint a picture of the America in which Vanderbilt lived.” “Vanderbilt’s story is indeed epic, and so is The First Tycoon. And he offers a fruitful way to think about the larger history of American elites as well as the life of one of their most famous members.” “Stiles writes with both the panache of a fine journalist and the analytical care of a seasoned scholar.

The book is filled with important, exhaustively researched and indeed fascinating details that would profit every student of American business and social history to read.” “Stiles, a superb researcher, has unearthed quantities of new material and crafted them into the illuminating, authoritative portrait of Vanderbilt that has been missing for so long.”

Elegance of style and fair-minded intent illuminate Stiles’s latest, expectedly profound exploration of American culture in the raw.” “Stiles has painted a full-bodied, nuanced picture of the man. one of the most exciting writers in the field.” A landmark study that significantly enhances one’s understanding of U.S. The First Tycoon has been widely praised, and rightly so. A Washington Post, San Francisco Chronicle, The New Yorker, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor, and Kansas City Star Book of the Year

The first tycoon cornelius vanderbilt