The History Book Club discussion

The book that will be the November 2016 Book of the Month is The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt by T. J. Stiles.

by T.J. Stiles (no photo)

Synopsis:

NATIONAL BESTSELLER
WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK AWARD

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.

About the Author



T.J. Stiles is the author of Custer's Trials: A Life on the Frontier of a New America, winner of the 2016 Pulitzer Prize for history, published by Alfred A. Knopf. He also wrote The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, which received the 2010 Pulitzer Prize for biography and 2009 National Book Award for nonfiction, and Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, winner of the Ambassador Book Award and the Peter Seaborg Award for Civil War Scholarship. An elected member of the Society of American Historians, he served on the 2012 faculty of the World Economic Forum, was a 2011 Guggenheim fellow in biography, and was the first Gilder Lehrman Fellow in American History, 2004–05, at the Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers at the New York Public Library. He now lives in Berkeley, California, with his wife and children.
(Source: TJStiles.net)

Praise and Reviews:

“A penetrating portrait of a complex, self-made titan.”
-Citation for the Pulitzer Prize in Biography 2010

“With deep and imaginative research and graceful writing, T. J. Stiles’s The First Tycoon tells the extraordinary story of a brutally competitive man who was hard to love but irresistibly interesting as a truly pivotal historical figure. With few letters and no diaries, and with layers of legend to carve through, Stiles captures Cornelius Vanderbilt as a person and as a force who shaped the transportation revolution, all but invented unbridled American capitalism, and left his mark not only all over New York City but, for better or worse, all over our economic landscape.”
-Citation for the National Book Award in Nonfiction 2009

“T.J. Stiles presents the magnate as a man in full.”
-Boston Globe Best Books of 2009

“Stiles writes with care and panache about the quintessential ‘robber baron,’ a man widely revered as well as hated.”
-The New York Times 100 Notable Books of 2009

“A definitive biography . . . Stiles brings the Commodore, warts and all, to life in this new study, which is at once up-to-date in scholarly terms, analytically incisive, and lucidly written.”
-Raleigh News and Observer Best Books of 2009

“A monumental biography.”
-The Kansas City Star Top 100 Books of 2009

“At long last a biography worthy of the Commodore, meticulously researched, superbly written, and filled with original insights.”
-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

“In this whacking new biography of Vanderbilt, T. J. Stiles . . . demonstrates a brute eloquence of his own. This is a mighty—and mighty confident—work, one that moves with force and conviction and imperious wit through Vanderbilt’s noisy life and times . . . I read eagerly and avidly. This is state-of- the-art biography, crisper and more piquant than a 600-page book has any right to be.”
-Dwight Garner, The New York Times

“The illuminating, authoritative portrait of Vanderbilt that has been missing for so long.”
-Alice Schroeder, The Washington Post

“Very absorbing . . . [The First Tycoon] is in fact much more than a biography. 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.”
-Richard M. Abrams, San Francisco Chronicle

“Perceptive and fluently written . . . Stiles writes with both the panache of a fine journalist and the analytical care of a seasoned scholar. 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.”
-Michael Kazin, The New York Times Book Review

“Monumental and outrageously entertaining . . . Stiles writes in a style the Commdore would have appreciated: swift, economical and direct, daring but never hyperbolic. The nearly 600 pages of text seem to fly through your hands . . . Stiles has a genuine gift for putting complex historical subjects into perspective without lapsing into revisionism.”
-Allen Barra, truthdig.com

“Monumental . . . Stiles has a gift for making readers admire unsavory characters. When I put down this arresting saga . . . I raised a toast to everything the old rascal did for the U.S. . . . [The First Tycoon] resembles a five-course meal at a three-star restaurant: rich and pleasurable.”
-James Pressley, Bloomberg.com

“Superbly written and researched . . . Worthy of its subject.”
-The Economist

“Sweeping . . . [A] magisterial, exemplary work . . . [that] offers entry into the storm-tossed world of our current tycoons and the rough waters they have piloted us into.”
-William Bergman, American History Magazine

“Superbly researched and elegantly written . . . Stiles’s will likely prove to be the definitive biography of this epic entrepreneur.”
-Martin Morse Wooster, Philanthropy Magazine

“Stiles has painted a full-bodied, nuanced picture of the man . . . Elegance of style and fair-minded intent illuminate Stiles’s latest . . . profound exploration of American culture in the raw.”
-Carlo Wolff, The Boston Globe

“The First Tycoon has been widely praised, and rightly so . . . [An] epic biography.”
-Sam Roberts, The New York Times

“Vanderbilt’s story is indeed epic, and so is The First Tycoon . . . Stiles is a perceptive and witty writer with a remarkable ability to paint a picture of the America in which Vanderbilt lived.”
-Randy Dotinga, The Christian Science Monitor

“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

KIRKUS REVIEW

https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-re...

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(view spoiler)[I know everything now about chapter one and I am going to post it here - oops I better place this in a spoiler alert so I do not ruin the book for others (hide spoiler)]

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Contents

List of Illustrations xi
List of Maps xv

Part One
CAPTAIN 1794-1847

1 The Islander 3
2 The Duelist 36
3 A Tricky God 64
4 Nemesis 92
5 Sole Control 119
6 Man of Honor 136

Part Two
COMMODORE 1848-1860

7 Prometheus 163
8 Start of the West 194
9 North Star 223
10 Ariel 253
11 Vanderbilt 277
12 Champion 298

Part Three
KING 1861-1877

13 War 335
14 The Origins of Empire 365
15 The Power to Punish 402
16 Among Friends 438
17 Consolidations 474
18 Dynasty 518
Epilogue 563

Acknowledgements 573
Biographical Essay 579
Notes 589
Primary Source Bibliography 691
Index 703

FOR THOSE WHO WOULD LIKE A SUGGESTED WEEKLY SYLLABUS

NOVEMBER 1ST THROUGH NOVEMBER 6TH
1 The Islander 3
2 The Duelist 36
3 A Tricky God 64
4 Nemesis 92
5 Sole Control 119

NOVEMBER 7TH THROUGH NOVEMBER 13TH
6 Man of Honor 136
7 Prometheus 163
8 Start of the West 194
9 North Star 223
10 Ariel 253

NOVEMBER 14TH THROUGH NOVEMBER 20TH
11 Vanderbilt 277
12 Champion 298
13 War 335
14 The Origins of Empire 365

NOVEMBER 21ST THROUGH NOVEMBER 27TH
15 The Power to Punish 402
16 Among Friends 438
17 Consolidations 474

NOVEMBER 28Th THROUGH NOVEMBER 30TH
18 Dynasty 518
Epilogue 563

Acknowledgements 573
Biographical Essay 579
Notes 589
Primary Source Bibliography 691
Index 703

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Cornelius Vanderbilt



Cornelius Vanderbilt was a famous industrialist who worked in railroads and shipping. He had accumulated the largest fortune in the U.S. at the time of his death, in 1877.

Synopsis

Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on May 27, 1794, in the Port Richmond area of Staten Island, New York. He began a passenger ferry business in New York harbor with one boat, then started his own steamship company, eventually controlling Hudson River traffic. He also provided the first rail service between New York and Chicago. When he died in 1877, Vanderbilt had amassed the largest fortune accumulated in the U.S. at that time. Vanderbilt is deemed one of America's leading businessmen, and is credited for helping to shape the present-day United States.

Background and Early Years

Cornelius Vanderbilt was born on May 27, 1794, on Staten Island, New York, the son of Cornelius and Phebe Hand Vanderbilt. His father instilled in him a blunt, straightforward demeanor, and his mother, frugality and hard work. At age 11, young Cornelius quit school to work with his father, ferrying cargo and passengers between Staten Island and Manhattan. Legend has it that at age 16, Vanderbilt ran a two-mast sailing vessel, known as a periauger; the enterprise came with the understanding that he would have to share profits with his parents, who had supplied a loan. Through aggressive marketing, shrewd deals and undercutting the competition—traits that he would practice all his life—he earned more than $1,000 in his first year.

At age 18, Vanderbilt contracted with the U.S. government to supply neighboring outposts during the War of 1812. He learned the art of shipbuilding and navigation in open water. By the end of the war, he had amassed a small fleet of boats and working capital of $10,000 ferrying passengers and freight from Boston to Delaware Bay. He would eventually be given the nickname “Commodore,” which he embraced.

Troubled Family Life

On December 19, 1813, much to the dismay of his parents, Cornelius Vanderbilt married his first cousin, Sophia Johnson. The couple would eventually have 13 children, with 11 surviving to adulthood. As successful as he would be in business, he was a terrible father and husband. A lifelong misogynist who had wanted more than three sons, Cornelius paid little attention to his daughters and is believed to have cheated on his wife with prostitutes. Vanderbilt reportedly had his son Cornelius Jeremiah twice committed to a lunatic asylum. He undertook the same course of action for Sophia at one point as well, after Vanderbilt showed amorous interest in the family's young governess.

Building a Shipping Empire

In 1817, seeing the potential in a new technology, Cornelius Vanderbilt partnered with Thomas Gibbons in a steamship business, the Union Line. During his tenure with Gibbons, Vanderbilt learned how to manage a large commercial operation and became a quick study in legal matters. Gibbons was ferrying customers between New York and New Jersey, a clear violation of an 1808 state-sanctioned monopoly given to Robert Fulton and Robert Livingston. Aaron Ogden, who was operating Fulton and Livingston’s business and worked with Gibbons, sued the latter boatman for violating the monopoly. Vanderbilt and Gibbons hired Daniel Webster to defend their position. In Gibbons v. Ogden, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of Gibbons, stating the Constitution’s Commerce Clause gives Congress the exclusive authority to regulate interstate trade. Thus, it was unconstitutional for the New York legislature to give Ogden exclusive shipping rights.

After Thomas Gibbons died in 1826, Vanderbilt wanted to buy the company, but Gibbons’s son didn’t want to sell. Vanderbilt bought several boats and established the Dispatch Line, running between New York City and Philadelphia. Through aggressive marketing and low fees, Vanderbilt forced Gibbons’s son to buy him out.

Vanderbilt soon became known for his sharp business acumen. During the 1830s, he built profitable shipping lines in the New York region, undercutting competitors’ fares and offering top service. Competitors struggled and finally paid him to take his business elsewhere. He then shifted his operations to the Hudson River, going head to head against the Hudson River Steamboat Association, another monopoly. Capitalizing on the populist language of President Andrew Jackson, he named his service the "People’s Line," offering cheap fares for all. The Association bought him out for $100,000 and annual payments of $5,000. Implementing this business model several times made Vanderbilt a millionaire.

But wealth didn’t buy Vanderbilt respectability. In the 1840s, he constructed a large but modest family home at 10 Washington Place, in present-day Greenwich Village. But the city’s elites were slow to accept him, considering him uncultured and rough. His handwriting was nearly illegible, his grammar atrocious and laced with profanity. Yet he didn’t care. He despised ostentation, living a relatively simple and disciplined life.

In 1851, Vanderbilt expanded his shipping business, forming the Accessory Transit Company to transport passengers from New York City to San Francisco via the Nicaraguan isthmus. Again, his timing was perfect. The California Gold Rush brought an enormous demand for passage to the West Coast. Though offering a treacherous ride for its users, the Transit Company was a success. By 1852, his competition had had enough and offered him $40,000 a month to abandon his operations. Nearing 60 years old, Vanderbilt was ready for something else. He purchased a large yacht, christened the North Star, and took his extended family on a grand tour of Europe at the cost of half a million dollars.

Building a Railroad Empire

During the Civil War, Vanderbilt donated his fleet's largest ship, aptly named the Vanderbilt, to the Union Navy. By 1864, he had retired from shipping, having amassed nearly $30 million in wealth. At age 70, Vanderbilt turned his attention more closely to railroads, acquiring the New York & Harlem and Hudson Line (which ran along the Erie Canal), and then going after the New York Central Railroad. In a ruthless act during a bitter winter when the Erie Canal was frozen over, he refused to accept Central’s passengers or freight, cutting them off from connections to western cities. Forced to capitulate, the Central Railroad sold Vanderbilt controlling interest, and he eventually consolidated his hold on rail traffic from New York City to Chicago. This new conglomerate revolutionized rail operations by standardizing procedures and timetables, increasing efficiency and decreasing travel and shipment times.

During the 19th century, as rapid developments in technology and innovation enveloped society, many Americans sought meaningful forms of spiritual expression. Some gravitated to more traditional religions while others became fascinated with the occult. After his wife’s death in 1868, Vanderbilt sought the help of the Chaflin sisters, two mediums who claimed they could bring forth the spirits of the deceased. His family however was not impressed and feared their father would fall victim to charlatans. They introduced him to a distant female cousin, Frank Armstrong (so named due to a promise her parents made to name their first child after a family friend), his junior by decades, who became his second wife.

In 1871, Cornelius Vanderbilt financed a monument to his empire: the Grand Central Depot. The terminal for the New York Central Railroad was constructed with features like elevated platforms, a glass balloon roof spanning all of the tracks and boarding areas only accessible to the passengers. At the city’s insistence, the tracks were submerged below street level to reduce noise and smoke.

Final Years and Legacy

Towards the end of his life, Vanderbilt had no plans to pass along his fortune to charity. He had lived most of his life in relative modesty considering his stratospheric wealth. He sole extravagance seemed to be buying race horses. However, in 1873, his wife, Frank, introduced him to the Reverend Holland Nimmons McTyeire, who asked Vanderbilt to help him fund a Methodist University in Tennessee. Discussions went on for several years and by the time of his death, Vanderbilt had promised a gift approaching $1 million for what would become Vanderbilt University.

In 1876, Cornelius Vanderbilt became ill and began an eight-month death march. In keeping with his pugnacious personality, he was a horrible patient, raging at his doctors, calling them “old grannies” and at one point leaving his death bed to lecture reporters who were standing vigil outside his house. He died on January 4, 1877, presumably of exhaustion, brought on by complications associated with intestinal, stomach and heart disorders, which may have also been connected to syphilis.

In his will, he left $90 million, the bulk of his estate, to his son William Henry, who worked in his father's business, and $7.5 million to William’s four sons. His other son, the sickly Cornelius Jeremiah, received a $200,000 trust fund. His wife and daughters allegedly received amounts ranging anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000 and property and stock.

Today, it is estimated that Cornelius Vanderbilt would have been worth more than $200 billion, if calculating his wealth with the nation’s gross domestic product in 1877. This would make him the second wealthiest person in American history after Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller. Among Vanderbilt’s descendants are fashion designer Gloria Vanderbilt and her son, television news anchor Anderson Cooper.

Publisher Edward J. Renehan Jr. wrote 2007's Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt while historian T.J. Stiles penned a Pulitzer Prize-winning book on the industrialist's life—The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (2009).
(Source: Biography.com)

More:
by Edward J. Renehan Jr.

Welcome everyone to our November Book of the Month selection. We are going to be digging into the life of Cornelius Vanderbilt. This is a heftier book than most of our previous selections so we have an aggressive reading schedule.

We will be covering chapters 1-5 this week. Let's kick things off with a few introductory questions:


Week One Discussion Questions – Kick Off and Introductions

1. Introduce yourself and tells us what interest you have in this book.

2. What do you know of Cornelius Vanderbilt?

3. Are you familiar with the background of the steamboat and shipping business?

Hello! I first became interested in the Vanderbuilt family back in the 1980s when reading about the custody battle involving Gloria Vanderbuilt's future. I've gone forward in time with the family. I welcome the opportunity to go back to the beginning with this knowledgeable Group.

Welcome Portia! This is a great book for background on the Vanderbilts and see where it all started. Looking forward to having you in the discussion.

Thank you, Teri!

Hi Peter here.
Vanderbilt is an interesting character, but I don't know much about him. I've read more about later tycoons.

Hi Peter ~ Hopefully this will be an enlightening read then! Glad to have you join us.

We are kicking off our reading with chapters 1-5 this week.

Chapter Overviews and Summaries
Week One

(view spoiler)[The Islander – 3 - 35

The book starts with the trial over the will of Cornelius Vanderbilt, known as the Commodore. Vanderbilt is considered the second wealthiest person in the United States, and was a dominating force in railroad and steamboat transportation. Cornelius Vanderbilt was the son of Phebe Hand Vanderbilt and Cornelius Vanderbilt and was born on May 27, 1794 in Staten Island, New York. He is of Dutch heritage. His father ran a ferry company. The author describes New York in the early 1800s. Early banking is discussed, including the creation of the Bank of New York, as well as the early days of the New York Stock Exchange. Cornele learns to be a merchant as a teenager, running his own boat for his father business. Cornele buys his own periauger and begins to branch out, away from his father’s business. On December 19, 1813, Cornele weds his cousin Sophia Johnson. Cornele and Sophia move from Stanten Island to 93 Broad Street in New York City. Cornele continued to press forward as a merchant, eventually buying full ownership of a schooner and took on his father as a partner. By December 1817, Cornelius was worth $15,000. The chapter ends with Cornele temporarily taking command of the Mouse of the Mountain, a small ferryboat, for Thomas Gibbons, a rich rice planter from Georgia, whose captain has suddenly left his employ.


A Young Cornelius Vanderbilt

The Duelist – 36 - 63

While Vanderbilt was working for Thomas Gibbons, Gibbons became engaged in a major court case about his right to operate his steamboat business in New York waters. New Jersey Governor Aaron Ogden believed he had a monopoly there, due to a special “steamship grant” from the state of New York. In its landmark ruling in Gibbons’s favor in Ogden v. Gibbons, the Supreme Court ruled that the Constitution gave Congress sole power over interstate commerce, and ordered New York to allow steamboats to enter its waters from other states. This victory for Gibbons effectively ended the monopoly. Famous American statesman Daniel Webster was one of the attorneys who argued the case for Gibbons before the Supreme Court. This ruling greatly opened up the steamboat trade on all U.S. waterways.


Thomas Gibbons

A Tricky God – 64 - 91

After the trial, Ogden eventually becomes bankrupt and dies in 1839. In 1826, Gibbons died. Vanderbilt worked a while for Gibbons’s son, William, but he bridled under this arrangement and soon went to work for himself. With hard work and aggressive tactics, Vanderbilt quickly built up his steamboat operation. During the 1830s, he became a primary steamboat operator providing transport between New York and the cotton mills of New England. Vanderbilt was a master at forcing his competitors out of business. He routinely lowered his fares, making it impossible for other companies to compete profitably.


Daniel Drew

Nemesis – 92 - 118

Vanderbilt also had his eye on railroads, a nascent industry. In 1833, at age 39, he took his first train ride, departing from South Amboy, New Jersey, to see for himself what railroad travel was like. While the train was chugging along at the then unheard of speed of 25 miles per hour, an axle broke, and the train left the tracks. In the ensuing crash, many passengers suffered serious injuries, including Vanderbilt, who broke several bones and nearly died from a punctured lung. He not only soon resumed his usual hard-driven, frenetic work pace, he promptly got into the railroad business.


The Lexington Steamer

Sole Control – 119 - 135

Vanderbilt became president of a railroad called Stonington, also known as the New York, Providence & Boston Railroad, and became a director of numerous other railroads. Vanderbilt also began buying Manhattan real estate, becoming a prominent owner with properties on Coenties Slip and Warren Street. He bought and began operating the Staten Island Ferry. Around this time, people started to call him “Commodore,” then the highest rank in the U.S. Navy.


New York, Providence & Boston Railroad (hide spoiler)]

Week One Discussion Questions – The Islander – 3 - 35

(view spoiler)[1. What effect do you think Vanderbilt’s family had on him? What do you think he learned from his father’s ferry business?

2. What are your thoughts on New York as described by Stiles?


The Periauger (hide spoiler)]

I am reading along and enjoying the book so far, but I am finding the author's prose a bit hyperbolic. Are other people finding that? Or, perhaps, it is Vanderbilt who is hyperbolic.

Peter wrote: "I am reading along and enjoying the book so far, but I am finding the author's prose a bit hyperbolic. Are other people finding that? Or, perhaps, it is Vanderbilt who is hyperbolic."

I would say a little of both, don't you think?

(view spoiler)[But Vanderbilt certainly seems to be a bit larger than life, no nonsense business man. Do you think that comes from the way he was raised or just his own gumption? (hide spoiler)]

Hi It's Helga here to join in the reading of this book.
I don't know a whole lot about Vanderbilt and agree on the comment above that it is hyperbolic in the authors prose and Vanderbilt himself. It should ba interesting.

Welcome, Helga! Glad to see you with us again. Looking forward to your comments.

Teri wrote: "Peter wrote: "I am reading along and enjoying the book so far, but I am finding the author's prose a bit hyperbolic. Are other people finding that? Or, perhaps, it is Vanderbilt who is hyperbolic."..."

(view spoiler)[
Vanderbilt was certainly a "huge" figure. But, to me, that argues for his biographer taking a modest approach to language.

But Stiles also uses this sort of language for other characters in the book (like Gibbons).
(hide spoiler)]

Week One Discussion Questions - The Duelist – 36 - 63

(view spoiler)[1. What are your thoughts on the relationship of aristocracy and public service? Only those of a certain income could vote.

2. What are your thoughts on the “duel” between Gibbons / Vanderbilt and Livingston / Ogden? Who had the most power?

3. How do you think Cornele’s business affairs affected family life? He was away a lot.


Aaron Ogden (hide spoiler)]

Week One Discussion Questions - A Tricky God – 64 - 91

(view spoiler)[1. In regards to the case that challenged the steamboat monopoly, the author mentions that, “A century after Gibbons v. Ogden,, legal historian Charles Warren hailed the decision as ‘the emancipation proclamation of American commerce.’” How did this case affect commerce, business and the American people at this time?

2. What do you think was most important for Vanderbilt to become successful at this time?


Cornelius Vanderbilt (hide spoiler)]

Week One Discussion Questions - Nemesis – 92 - 118

(view spoiler)[1. On page 96, the author talks about the Jacksonian mindset of the time. The fear of monopolies and aristocracy intertwined with anxiety over the “mysterious abstraction of commercial institutions.” He discusses how corporations live forever where the burden of an unjust man is relieved with his death. How did this mindset affect business and banking at the time?

2. In talking about Vanderbilt’s modus operandi of fare-cutting existing lines until he was bribed to abandon the market, Stine describes the Commodore as “not a self-serving capitalist, but a lone proprietor, an avenging entrepreneur, the monopolists’ nemesis.” Would you agree or disagree with this and why or why not?


The first deadly train crash occurred on November 8, 1833 on the Camden and Amboy Railroad in New Jersey. The journal box, or hot box, of the 24-passenger train overheated and caught fire, causing one of the axles to break. The train derailed, killing two and injuring all but one of the passengers. Among the passengers were Cornelius Vanderbilt and past U.S. President John Quincy Adams, the only one to escape injury. (hide spoiler)]

Hi Portia ~ Please make sure to put your comments on the book in spoiler tags. See messages 4 and 5 above.

Response to Portia - Staten Island Ferry

(view spoiler)[I had no idea that the Staten Island Ferry had been owned by Vanderbilt. It was a very enlightening section. Have you noticed any major changes through the years?


The Buttonwood Agreement, which took place on May 17, 1792, started the New York Stock & Exchange Board now called the New York Stock Exchange. (hide spoiler)]

Week One Discussion Questions - Sole Control – 119 - 135

(view spoiler)[1. Despite having been competitors, Vanderbilt and Daniel Drew struck an unwritten agreement to invest in the other’s steamboats. Is this a case of “keep your friends close and your enemies closer?”

2. What are your thoughts on Vanderbilt’s negotiation tactics?


Daniel Drew


A lithograph of the fire on board the Lexington, by Nathaniel Currier. (hide spoiler)]

Chapter Overviews and Summaries
Week Two

(view spoiler)[Chapter 6 – Man of Honor – 136 - 162

Vanderbilt consolidated his grip on the steamship business and built a new massive steamer, the Cornelius Vanderbilt. Vanderbilt became heavily involved in the railroad industry in the 1840s, and took the presidency of his first railroad, the Stonington, in 1847. By now, Vanderbilt was immensely wealthy. He and his family moved from their estate on Staten Island to a luxurious home near Washington Square Park in Manhattan. He began to spend each summer in fashionable Saratoga Springs no later than 1840, and joined the New York Yacht Club soon after it was organized. Though he was notorious for having put his wife Sophia in an asylum in 1846, his son-in-law testified that she was suffering from serious "nervous disorders," and needed medical attention.


Sophia Johnson Vanderbilt

Chapter 7 – Prometheus – 163 - 193

Vanderbilt sent his second son, Corneil, to California at the start of the gold rush, hoping it would offer him a start in life. Instead, he became a gambling addict. Vanderbilt's partner in his attempt to build a canal across Nicaragua, Joseph L. White, proved treacherous almost from the beginning, and would be his most persistent foe through the end of the 1850s.



Chapter 8 – Star of the West - 194 - 222
Joseph L. White betrayed Vanderbilt by lying about the willingness of British investors to invest in the canal, even as White sold canal stock. Vanderbilt's desire to get revenge on White shaped much of his dealings with the canal company, and Accessory Transit, the corporation he set up to carry passengers across Nicaragua.


Corneil Vanderbilt

Chapter 9 – North Star – 223 - 252

During a grand tour of Europe in 1853, Vanderbilt was betrayed by White (again) and Charles Morgan (not Morgan and Cornelius K. Garrison, as is usually thought), who cut off the flow of money owed to Vanderbilt from Accessory Transit. Vanderbilt was cheated out of $600,000 by Robert Schuyler, a prestigious member of a patrician family, who had worked closely with Vanderbilt over the previous two decades. Schuyler carried out a major fraud that was the scandal of the decade.


Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt's steam yacht, North Star.

Chapter 10 – Ariel – 253 - 276

In late 1855, Vanderbilt started to buy control of Accessory Transit once again, as part of a plan to create a monopoly on California steamship traffic, in conjunction with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company. When filibuster William Walker invaded Nicaragua in 1855, Walker's friend Edmund Randolph manipulated Cornelius K. Garrison into betraying Accessory Transit, along with Charles Morgan. At that moment, Vanderbilt was buying control of Accessory Transit, though Garrison did not know it at the time. Indeed, Garrison had refused to help Walker until he was forced to by Randolph.


Cornelius K. Garrison (hide spoiler)]

Week Two Discussion Questions – Captain

(view spoiler)[1. During our first week of reading, we learned about Cornelius Vanderbilt, the Captain. What kind of a man do you see him as? What are his strengths and his weaknesses?

2. Vanderbilt, at the time was considered ruthless and at times “terrifying to people.” Would you agree with this assessment? How do you think the general public saw him compared to his business partners / competitors?


Captain Cornelius Vanderbilt (hide spoiler)]

Week Two Discussion Questions - Man of Honor – 136 - 162

(view spoiler)[1. In his notes on page 149 (note #31) the author discusses the distinction between a fashionable elite and a functional one. He mentions “…they struggled to invent social status in a culture that no longer depended upon hierarchy to function. A Livingston of 1800 did not desire distinction; she simply had to conjure up artificial ranks now that the organic ones were gone.” What are your thoughts on class and distinction and how did it affect the financial market?

2. What was Vanderbilt’s family life like? He had 13 children by Sophia, his first cousin. He often berated his eldest son, Billy. He committed his wife for a time to an insane asylum, and then there’s the rumored mistress / governess. What are your thoughts on these relationships?


Courtlandt Palmer (hide spoiler)]

Week Two Discussion Questions - Prometheus – 163 - 193

(view spoiler)[1. What did you think about Vanderbilt and Drew’s stock operations? The author stated that “they were corrupt, even by the broad social standards of their own time.

2. What type of people did Vanderbilt surround himself with? In business? In his personal life? Friends, enemies or “frenemies”?

3. What repercussions did Vanderbilt have to deal with while working through the Nicaragua Canal deal? What went well?


Vanderbilt: Steamship Line via Nicaragua to California (hide spoiler)]

Week Two Discussion Questions - Star of the West - 194 - 222

(view spoiler)[1. What consequences did Vanderbilt’s Nicaragua venture have on the national scene? On the economy? What kind of a man did Americans see him as?

2. Vanderbilt had strained relations with his sons, yet welcomed his sons-in-law into the family and his business. What are your thoughts on these relationships?

3. On the last page of the chapter the author states, “Like the marketplace itself, Vanderbilt was a paradox – both a creator and a destroyer.” Do you agree or disagree?

(hide spoiler)]

Week Two Discussion Questions - North Star – 223 - 252

(view spoiler)[1. This chapter starts with a discussion of Vanderbilt’s wealth. His new luxury yacht is bigger and better than what the military was using (sail powered ships). He was also starting to think of what would happen with his money when he died. He planned to leave his sons, who he often had issues with, the bulk of his estates, and hardly anything for the sons-in-law who worked so hard for him. What drove Cornelius Vanderbilt. Was it wealth? To one up everyone else / be on top?

2. Why did Vanderbilt commit Corneil to an asylum? The notes by the author suggest that Corneil had a hand in this himself due to his excessive gambling. Was this act similar to placing someone in rehab today?


The dining room on the North Star


Library on The North Star (hide spoiler)]

Week Two Discussion Questions – Ariel – 253 - 276

(view spoiler)[1. On page 263 the author says, “In Vanderbilt’s mind, his commitment to competition kept alive the spark of the Revolution. He, Vanderbilt, represented the “spirit of resistance,” whether to the odious Livingston steamboat monopoly or the obscene subsidy to the already-rich investors in the Collins Line.” Do you agree with this representation of Vanderbilt?

2. At the end of this chapter, we see Vanderbilt having to relinquish control to regain Accessory Transit. This is power that he is used to having. How difficult do you think this was for him, if at all?

(hide spoiler)]

Apologize in the delay on posting this one. I have been traveling all day and just got to a computer:

Week Two Discussion Questions – Weekly Wrap-Up

(view spoiler)[1. A lot happened in this week’s reading. There was the Nicaragua to California route that Vanderbilt forged. He lost control of Accessory Transit. There was the steamship route in the Atlantic and we end with Vanderbilt trying to regain control of Accessory Transit. What did he do well and what were his faults? Who were his biggest foes and allies?

2. We have read about Vanderbilt the Captain and now we’ve gotten to know him some as Commodore. How has he changed over time?


Cornelius Vanderbilt (hide spoiler)]

Chapter Overviews and Summaries
Week Three

(view spoiler)[Chapter 11 – Vanderbilt – 277 - 297

A little-known Accessory Transit official in Nicaragua, Joseph N. Scott, refused to hand over the company steamboats in Nicaragua to Hosea Birdsall, Vanderbilt's agent. Scott was owed money by the company, and he refused to cooperate until he was repaid. As a result, Garrison and Morgan were able to take control of the steamboats and start a transit line, which carried reinforcements from the United States to Walker's army in Nicaragua. Had Scott complied with Vanderbilt's orders, Walker would have fallen from power, and a major war costing tens of thousands of lives would have been averted. Vanderbilt eventually seized the steamboats with the help of a secret agent named Sylvanus Spencer. As a first mate on the high seas, Spencer had almost certainly murdered his captain, though he was acquitted because no one had seen him do it.



Chapter 12 – Champion – 298 - 334

Vanderbilt tried very hard to restart the Nicaragua transit line, urged on by President James Buchanan. He was stymied by the manipulations of Joseph L. White, a confidence artist named William R. C. Webster, and William Walker, whose repeated attempt to reconquer Nicaragua frightened the authorities there away from reopening the transit route. Vanderbilt eventually created a monopoly on California steamship traffic by forcing Pacific Mail to come to terms, dividing the Pacific and Atlantic oceans between them. He was immensely fond of Ellen Williams, his son Corneil's wife, and personally wrote notes to her family, expressing fondness for them.


Ellen Williams Vanderbilt

Chapter 13 – War – 335 - 364

Vanderbilt tried to donate his largest ship, the Vanderbilt, to the Union navy, but was turned down by navy secretary Gideon Welles. He was able to only after the Confederate ironclad Virginia frightened Lincoln and his administration into seeking Vanderbilt's help. Vanderbilt's third son, George Washington, was court-martialed at the start of the Civil War, returned to duty, and never saw combat. He fell ill when running a recruiting station in Boston, and died in France.


Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles

Chapter 14 – The Origins of Empire – 364 - 401

Vanderbilt took over the Harlem railroad in 1863 as a hobby, hoping to show that he could turn a company widely thought to be worthless into a profitable enterprise. Daniel Drew did not fight Vanderbilt in the first Harlem railroad corner on Wall Street, in 1863. Vanderbilt did not take part in the Hudson River Railroad corner, but rather slowly purchased control, taking over the company in mid-1864. That takeover set the stage for Vanderbilt's conflict with Drew, who operated a steamboat line on the Hudson.


New York and Harlem Railroad (hide spoiler)]

Week Three Discussion Questions – Commodore

(view spoiler)[1. What are your thoughts on Cornelius Vanderbilt so far? Can you compare him to anyone today?

2. How did Cornelius Vanderbilt impact the American people? What were the negative and positive impacts?

(hide spoiler)]

Week Three Discussion Questions - Chapter 11 – Vanderbilt – 277 - 297

(view spoiler)[1. In discussing the revocation of the Accessory Transit’s corporate charter, the author talks about Vanderbilt’s handling of the situation, “Vanderbilt faced the gravest crisis of his life to date…And yet, he did not sell out. What distinguished him in the moment of crisis was his self-command; characteristically, he prepared a counterattack on multiple fronts.” What are your thoughts on how Vanderbilt handled the situation and about its eventual outcome?

2. What are your thoughts on how Vanderbilt communicated with the Accessory Transit Company stockholders (see pages 294-295)? Why did he tease some information to them?


Domingo de Goicouria Cabrera (hide spoiler)]

Week Three Discussion Questions - Chapter 12 – Champion – 298 - 334

(view spoiler)[1. On page 298 the author talks about William Walker going against the Commodore, “’The most disastrous blunder of Walker,’ observed the New York Herald, ‘was his coup d’etat against ‘the house of Vanderbilt.’’” Do you think Walker’s downfall was Vanderbilt or his own people? How did Vanderbilt treat his foes?

2. Was Vanderbilt a man of character or a bully? See page 299-300 and 334-335.


Augustus Schell (hide spoiler)]

Week Three Discussion Questions - Chapter 13 – War – 335 - 364

(view spoiler)[1. On page 339, the author discusses the Civil War, “War deserves its reputation as the most serious event in national life. It is a grimly wasteful enterprise; the expenditure of resources on materiel that can only destroy, not create, wealth; the termination of lives, usually of young men, at the moment of their greatest energy and potential; the gradual, bitter realization that, as Wellington famously declared, the only thing worse than a battle won is a battle lost. But the Civil War was more extraordinary than most, and more horrible.” Would you agree with this last statement?

2. What were the good and bad points in introducing “greenbacks” as legal tender?


Secretary of War Edwin Stanton enlisted Cornelius Vanderbilt's assistance and arranged for a meeting with Abraham (hide spoiler)]

Week Three Discussion Questions - Chapter 14 – The Origins of Empire – 365 - 401

(view spoiler)[1. On page 368 the author talks about Vanderbilt’s business acumen. “Though he was an excellent planner, he was still more accomplished as an improviser, a master of the unpredictable rough-and-tumble of business combat. He possessed a keen eye for strategic opportunities in his opponents’ tactical errors, for turning successful skirmishes into full-blown campaigns. When he first started, he had little inkling of what he eventually would accomplish.” What do you think was the key to his success? What of these attributes listed do you think was most important to his accomplishments?

2. The last paragraph of the chapter hints at what is to come, “Unfortunately for Vanderbilt, betrayal, not friendship, would govern the future. What he had begun with diplomacy, he would bring to an end in the stunning act of revenge.” Do you think that Vanderbilt has acted completely diplomatic so far?


Horace Greeley (hide spoiler)]

Week Three Discussion Questions – Weekly Wrap Up

(view spoiler)[1. Who do you think was the most successful of the Filibusters?

2. Today the idea of a limited government is considered a conservative one. How was it seen in Vanderbilt’s time?


William Walker (hide spoiler)]

Week Three Discussion Questions – Weekly Wrap Up

(view spoiler)[1. We have read about Vanderbilt the Captain, Commodore and now we’ve gotten to know him some as “King”. How has he changed over time?

2. What do you think was most significant in Vanderbilt’s role in helping the country during the Civil War?

(hide spoiler)]

Chapter Overviews and Summaries
Week Four

(view spoiler)[Chapter 15 – The Power to Punish – 402 - 437

Vanderbilt emerged as a consummate corporate diplomat in the railroad business. He did not set out to conquer an empire, but sought accommodation, fighting and acquiring connection lines only as a last resort.



Chapter 16 – Among Friends – 438 - 473

Jay Gould first approached Vanderbilt in late 1867, asking for help in throwing Daniel Drew off the Erie Railway board of directors. Vanderbilt agreed, hoping to prevent Drew from driving down stock prices and injuring the money market, as Vanderbilt bought control of the New York Central Railroad. Vanderbilt launched his failed corner of Erie stock in 1868 not to buy control of the company, but to take revenge on Drew, who had betrayed him and his friends in a joint operation in Erie stock.



Chapter 17 – Consolidations – 474 - 517

Vanderbilt contributed to the Black Friday panic of 1869, when he deliberately crushed the stock price of the Lake Shore railway, in a successful attempt to drive out a rival named LeGrand Lockwood, who was allying the Lake Shore with Jay Gould's Erie Railway. Vanderbilt then stepped in to arrest the panic and stabilize stock prices. Vanderbilt was proud of his second wife's Confederate beliefs, and even had Confederate General Braxton Bragg as a witness at their wedding. Most of Vanderbilt's late-life charity was aimed at helping the defeated South after the Civil War. The Commodore came to be accepted by patrician New York society, and was dubbed "an honorable and high-toned gentleman" toward the end of his life.


General Braxton Bragg (hide spoiler)]

Week Four Discussion Questions – Cornelius Vanderbilt

(view spoiler)[ 1. What are your thoughts on the book so far?

2. In a NY Times article (http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/10/boo...) T. J. Stiles is quoted, “Vanderbilt appeared in the role of a hero,” Stiles says. “Closer inspection reveals that a blood-chilling ruthlessness infused all his actions.” How would you describe Cornelius Vanderbilt?

(hide spoiler)]

Week Four Discussion Questions - Chapter 15 – The Power to Punish – 402 - 437

(view spoiler)[1. Page 402 mentions a quote from an 1897 article that states “Our own country is the child of steam.” This quote is the writer’s description of the U. S.’s development in the 19th century. What do you think? How would you describe the states at that time?

2. Are you surprised that Vanderbilt would show vulnerability at times? Especially in regards to death (Libby, his daughter-in-law’s sister)?


Henry Keep (hide spoiler)]

Week Four Discussion Questions - Chapter 16 – Among Friends – 438 - 473

(view spoiler)[1. How has Vanderbilt’s and Drew’s relationship changed over the course of time?

2. Do you agree with the author, that Vanderbilt “fought one of the greatest business conflicts in American History purely out of a desire for revenge?” (page 455)


Horace Henry Baxter (hide spoiler)]

Week Four Discussion Questions - Chapter 17 – Consolidations – 474 - 517

(view spoiler)[1. On pages 475-476 the author talks about the relationships that Vanderbilt would build, both personally and in business. At this time, he had his eye on building relationships to the west for business purposes. Do you think that Vanderbilt was successful with his relationships in business in this fashion?

2. What are your thoughts on the stock watering scheme?


Frank Armstrong Vanderbilt (hide spoiler)]

Week Four Discussion Questions – Wrapping Up the Week

(view spoiler)[1. Describe Cornelius Vanderbilt. Which among his personal qualities help to explain his great financial success? Why wasn't his family accepted by the elite of New York City? What type of father and husband was he?

2. The very rich, like the Vanderbilts, make up just a small portion of American society at any given time. Why do scholars study the lives of the very rich? What can we learn about the larger society by looking at the Vanderbilts? Why are people today still fascinated by the wealthy of a century ago?

(view spoiler)[ (hide spoiler)] (hide spoiler)]