Reviewed summary
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
Ever wonder how a stubborn kid from Staten Island turned into America’s first real tycoon? Cornelius Vanderbilt didn’t inherit a fortune or charm investors with slick speeches. Nope. He bulldozed his way through 19th-century America’s cutthroat transportation world, steamrolling rivals and reshaping capitalism as we know it. If you think billionaires today are ruthless, wait till you meet the original.
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