The First Tycoon cover art

The First Tycoon

The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Pulitzer Prize Winner)

 Preview
Try Standard free
Select 1 audiobook a month from our entire collection.
Listen to your selected audiobooks as long as you're a member.
Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

The First Tycoon

By: T.J. Stiles
Narrated by: Mark Deakins
Try Standard free

Auto-renews at $8.99/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy Now for $41.99

Buy Now for $41.99

About this listen

 A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism.

Founder of a dynasty, builder of the original Grand Central, creator of an impossibly vast fortune, Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt is an American icon. Humbly born on Staten Island during George Washington’s presidency, he rose from boatman to builder of the nation’s largest fleet of steamships to lord of a railroad empire. Lincoln consulted him on steamship strategy during the Civil War; Jay Gould was first his uneasy ally and then sworn enemy; and Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president of the United States, was his spiritual counselor. We see Vanderbilt help to launch the transportation revolution, propel the Gold Rush, reshape Manhattan, and invent the modern corporation—in fact, as T. J. Stiles elegantly argues, Vanderbilt did more than perhaps any other individual to create the economic world we live in today.

In The First Tycoon, Stiles offers the first complete, authoritative biography of this titan, and the first comprehensive account of the Commodore’s 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 enemies 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.

The First Tycoon is the exhilarating story of a man and a nation maturing together: the powerful account of a man whose life was as epic and complex as American history itself.©2009 T.J. Stiles; (P)2009 Random House Americas Business Business Development & Entrepreneurship Entrepreneurship Historical Professionals & Academics United States New York Railroad American History Gilded Age Capitalism Latin America Socialism Biography Abraham Lincoln
All stars
Most relevant
captivating biography of Vanderbilt. the narrator makes it easy to listen to the book from start to finish.

Fascinating biography

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It's a mirror for your own life, understanding how the world works much better. Especially stocks and bonds! Told through Steamships, war, city building, and railroads. A realistic example of ways to spend your life growing in material riches and status, if that is your goal.

Carefully Researched yet Thoroughly Entertaining

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Epic story of ‘The Commodore’ presented by one of the best narrators I have listened to.

Fascinating life of a business legend

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
In the spirit of reconciliation, Audible acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.