The First Tycoon: the Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
T. J. Stiles
Even though I've spent much of
the past four years significantly immersed in 19th-century U.S. history, I
realized upon picking up The First Tycoon
that I knew very little about Cornelius Vanderbilt beyond a vague sense that he
was one of the country's most successful robber barons. According to the
pleasantly enlightening biographical note that T. J. Stiles appends to his meticulously
researched biography of the transportation titan, this is partially due to the
fact that Vanderbilt receives surprisingly little academic attention,
especially relative to the class of magnates (the household names Carnegie,
Rockefeller, and Morgan come to mind) that followed in his wake. Despite the
fact that Vanderbilt has seemingly become merely an historical footnote, Stiles
effectively utilizes the facts of Vanderbilt's life to highlight the sweeping
economic and social changes that his subject experienced and influenced
throughout his lengthy tenure as a steamship and railroad executive.
Indeed, if there is a primary
complaint to be made about the book, it is that Stiles focuses almost
exclusively on Vanderbilt's extensive economic endeavors, often ignoring his
personal life or interrupting otherwise compelling narratives of personal
feuds, corporate takeovers, and civil wars (not just ours) with non-sequitur
anecdotes. Though Stiles attempts to relate these brief notes into relevant
points of the greater narrative (and makes it quite clear that there exists
little evidence of the man's personal life and private relationships), they
often seem a bit ham-fisted; there surely could have been a more effective way
of integrating them into the larger portrait of Vanderbilt. Likewise, Stiles
seems fond of dropping foreshadowing hints before brief and long breaks alike,
making it sometimes difficult to follow the thread of a particular story or
business relationship across several chapters. His adherence to chronology does,
however, give the book crucial momentum despite the inherent difficulties
Stiles faces in relating stories that are strikingly similar to one another and
that rely heavily on complex financial maneuvers that are almost certainly
foreign to the bulk of his readership. This momentum, along with the author's
consistent focus on his subject's forceful personality, make the book a
strikingly readable account of business history that rarely becomes boring even
to the uninitiated (such as myself).
The book's economic approach to
Vanderbilt's life, though obviously warranted, necessitates frequent explanations
and asides regarding the rapidly changing economic and political context of his
times. Stiles handles these admirably, and the book is as enlightening for its insights
into the world of 19th-century social customs and financial systems as it is
for its retellings of Vanderbilt's various professional achievements. He
clearly had a general audience in mind while writing the book, yet he strikes
the right balance between explaining the obvious and becoming mired in tedious (and
unnecessary) details. Some of the intricacies involved in stock maneuvers continue
to elude my understanding in spite of his best efforts, but given my personal
history with attempts to understand the period's economic theory I'm not sure
it's quite fair to blame Stiles for that; in fact, he should be lauded for his success
in making some of this stuff actually make sense to my notoriously business-averse
mind. Those familiar with the era's politics will recognize and appreciate the
ways in which Jacksonian laissez faire
radicalism gradually became more stringent Democratic conservatism over the
course of Vanderbilt's considerably influential career, and Stiles includes
plenty of relevant context for those approaching the era decades after their high
school history classes.
All told, Stiles has put together
a compelling academic study of a man and his contemporary context that is far
from dry, despite relying on the intricate economics of business deals for many
of its most potent plot points. Somehow, in his hands the story of Cornelius
Vanderbilt is continually compelling, both a vivid portrait of the man and a
reasonably nonpartisan exploration of the monumental economic, political, and
social changes he saw- and significantly contributed to- throughout his
lifetime. The First Tycoon is a
well-written, unapologetically academic, and appealing history, representing an
admirable (and largely successful) attempt to understand the seemingly
inextricable history of both Cornelius Vanderbilt and the economic climate of
the 19th-century United
States .
Grade: A-