![]() ![]() Vanderbilt, the “first great corporate tycoon in American history,” would actually “overshadow democratic government,” writes historian T.J. Critics failed to stop him, while smart politicians scrambled to get out of his way. Perhaps more than anyone else, he ushered in a new era of corporate power in which only fools adhered to strict morals.įrom steamboats to railroads, he controlled the way that Americans moved and created an empire in a country that had just tried to escape one a few decades earlier.Ĭorporate leaders feared, envied, and idolized him. Vanderbilt, a walking ball of intensity, saw to that. No big business, no tycoons.īut then things changed. And for good reason: neither did great industry, cutthroat competition, nor fantastic wealth. When a man named Cornelius Vanderbilt started his career as a lowly boatman in the early 19th century, the word “tycoon” didn’t exist. ![]()
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