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Product Description
Product Description
John D Rockefeller. Cornelius Vanderbilt. Andrew Carnegie. John Jacob Astor. Henry Ford. Joseph P Kennedy. Even today, long after their deaths, the names of these six men continue to be associated with wealth and power. When they were alive, they dominated their worlds as few men had done before, and few have done since. These are the life stories of six of the richest men who ever lived in America. Their lives offer us windows into ways of life over two centuries that most of us can only imagine, and an opportunity to glimpse times when laws, attitudes, prejudices and opportunities were very different from today. Their achievements - financial, political and social - continue to affect us, for good or ill, to this day. Their mistakes still offer important lessons about the acquisition, use and abuse of wealth and power. And had they not lived, the history of America - and the world - might have been very different indeed.
About the Author
Wyn Derbyshire originally trained as a research chemist, gaining a PhD from the University of Cambridge before qualifying as a lawyer. Now a partner at City law firm S J Berwin LLP, he has for many years been interested in financial history and the lives of the great tycoons.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
Wyn Derbyshire's book is fascinating, compelling reading. The narrative is beautifully structured - no surprise, given that the author is shown as having a PhD in chemistry, after which he trained as a lawyer.
Quite apart from being an insight into the lives of the 'Six Tycoons' themselves, the book provides enough background to give a window onto a world which has long vanished. In the current turbulent times, this is particularly interesting.
The book is a well produced hardback with a terrific retro cover. If you're looking for a present for someone who has everything, or who is just plain difficult to buy for, this could be the answer.
Highly recommended.
Quite apart from being an insight into the lives of the 'Six Tycoons' themselves, the book provides enough background to give a window onto a world which has long vanished. In the current turbulent times, this is particularly interesting.
The book is a well produced hardback with a terrific retro cover. If you're looking for a present for someone who has everything, or who is just plain difficult to buy for, this could be the answer.
Highly recommended.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Wyn Derbyshire's book gives us any fascinating snap shot of the lives of six of the great names of American capitalism. 100 years and more after their heyday, the names of Carnegie, Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Ford, Kennedy and Astor are still familiar, emphasising the powerful influence they have had, both directly on business and on popular culture.
In this well researched and eminently readable book we get an insight into how they rose to prominence and the effect they had on those around them. Particularly interesting is how some of them changed over the careers, from being ruthlessly self-serving to trying to shape how posterity would remember them.
There are lessons here for today's billionaires such as Bill Gates. For the rest of us it is a window into another world, with the added bonus of a reminder that banking crises, misleading accounting and sharp business practice are nothing new.
Highly recommended
In this well researched and eminently readable book we get an insight into how they rose to prominence and the effect they had on those around them. Particularly interesting is how some of them changed over the careers, from being ruthlessly self-serving to trying to shape how posterity would remember them.
There are lessons here for today's billionaires such as Bill Gates. For the rest of us it is a window into another world, with the added bonus of a reminder that banking crises, misleading accounting and sharp business practice are nothing new.
Highly recommended
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4 reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
A nice read
22 Nov 2008
Format:Hardcover
I read Six Tycoons on holiday and enjoyed it very much. Like most people I have heard the names Astor, Vanderbilt, Carnegie, Rockefeller, Ford and Kennedy before. However, I didn't know why most of them were famous or I only had a partial insight into their lives. So finding out the detail was fascinating. I especially liked the way that the 6 lives chosen by Wyn Derbyshire also give you an overview of the the flow of American economic history. Starting with fur and moving through railways, oil, cars and ending with financial wheeling and dealing. Wyn Derbyshire's writing is entertaining and he mixes fact and anecdote in a way that keeps the reader engrossed and page turning.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Waste in all senses
23 Aug 2010
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
The thing that struck me most about this book was the horrible editing. This work contained a gross amount of spelling errors (and I am not referring to British spellings) including omitted letters and conjoined words. Even further, there were grammatical mistakes that made a few sentences almost impossible to grasp without having to reread them 4 or 5 times.
Although Derbyshire's prose was engaging he related quite a few anecdotes that pages later he would claim to be "unlikely" of being true. These anecdotes not being pertinent to the character of the tycoons, one wonders why they were included at all.
My two cents: find six separate biographies from a renowned publisher. These are unlikely to contain editing errors and will go into more depth. Don't waste your time or money on this one.
Although Derbyshire's prose was engaging he related quite a few anecdotes that pages later he would claim to be "unlikely" of being true. These anecdotes not being pertinent to the character of the tycoons, one wonders why they were included at all.
My two cents: find six separate biographies from a renowned publisher. These are unlikely to contain editing errors and will go into more depth. Don't waste your time or money on this one.
0 of 1 people found the following review helpful
A fascinating anthology of life stories of the rich and famous
8 Feb 2009
Format:Hardcover
Lawyer Wyn Derbyshire shares his fascination with major figures of financial history in Six Tycoons, a biography that traces the lives and influence of six profoundly wealthy Americans: John Jacob Astor, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Henry Ford, and Joseph P. Kennedy. Their successes (and their major mistakes!) offer valuable life lessons, and American history might have turned out quite differently if not for their impact. A handful of black-and-white plates illustrate this fascinating anthology of life stories of the rich and famous.
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