Customer Reviews

Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

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The Renehan book has been superseded for all practical purposes by The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt, by T.J. Stiles (Knopf, 2009).

The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

The importance of the Stiles book for the Renehan book is that Stiles compellingly demonstrates that two diaries Renehan claimed to use to support his most sensational claim, that the Commodore suffered from syphilitic dementia for the last decade of his life and was no more than a puppet run by his son William, are imaginary. Renehan's tale is contradicted by everything we know about syphilis; he refuses to let anyone examine his copies of the "diaries;" he refuses to name the present owners of the diaries; and, oh yes, he is currently doing time in New York for having stolen and sold letters by Washington, Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt belonging to the Theodore Roosevelt Association, of which he had been acting director.

Stiles, on the other hand (whom I have never met) is the real goods.

Many men have built fortunes by being in the right place at the right time and then gone on to major failures when they moved into another arena. Cornelius Vanderbilt is unique, to my knowledge, in that he succeeded in three totally separate areas - he built his initial fortune as a shipping magnate; he was a very successful stock market trader/speculator, and he built a railroad empire. Only the first of these is dealt with in any detail in this biography. The author seems to have done little research on his own, relying primarily on the excellent biography of Vanderbilt by Wheaton Lane published in 1942. The author spends much more time and effort repeating the fact that Vanderbilt contracted syphilis and eventually died from it than in explaining Vanderbilt's stock market dealings or his railroad operations. Most of his discussion of Vanderbilt's stock market adventures surround the Gould/Fisk Erie Railroad scandal, cadged from another secondary source. If this were the major event in Vanderbilt's time in the market he would have died a pauper, rather than the wealthiest man in America.
Vanderbilt created the New York Central System by buying the Harlem River Railroad, the Hudson River Railroad, and the original NY Central (which ran only from Albany to Buffalo). He then merged them to form one of the two greatest railroads in the eastern US. All of this is skimmed over, whereas Vanderbilt's dealings with a couple of psychic charlatans are gone into in great detail. I do give the author credit for his coverage of Vanderbilt's early years, and particularly his part in the famous Gibbons vs. Ogden Supreme Court case. Otherwise, this would have been a 1 star review.
A good current biography of Vanderbilt would be a major contribution towards understanding 19th century business history and the history of American railroading. This isn't it. If you like gossip about the rich and powerful, you may enjoy this book. I felt cheated.

I grew up during the 1960s and the term "Robber Barons" was still fashionable and it was shorthand for dismissing all those nineteenth century tycoons. Somehow, we were supposed to just simply know that these guys all got their wealth by taking it from others in a zero sum game. However, the more you know about history, how men like Vanderbilt, Carnegie, and Rockefeller actually earned their money the less that explanation satisfies.

This very interesting biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt reports a picture of the man from his hard youth on Staten Island and his work on its surrounding waters since he was eleven years old in 1805. While unschooled, Cornelius was obviously intelligent about the ways of sailing, was physically strong, brave, and a tireless worker. He admitted to a mania for making money and was willing to work in conditions that left others too afraid or too sensible to sail in. He saved much of his money, but was willing to spend some on drink and rough women around the docks. As his reputation and collection of sailing vessels grew, the newspapers named him "the Commodore" and he retains that title to this day.

Vanderbilt was always willing to challenge the status quo and not let others rest on the political advantages or wealth. He worked for Thomas Gibbons for several years and worked with him in Gibbons breaking the New York monopoly that awarded steamboat trade to a preferred group. Using the Commerce Clause in the Constitution with Daniel Webster arguing their case, Gibbons and Vanderbilt beat the monopoly and bankrupted a man with whom Gibbons had a persona feud. But after Gibbons death and the Commodore's deteriorating relationship with Gibbons' son, he struck out on his own in 1829. As Vanderbilt grew his fleet and range to span the continent through Nicaragua, his personal fortune grew to $20 million by the time of the Civil War.

During the Civil War, Vanderbilt refitted his ship "Vanderbilt" and piloted it with the intention of ramming and sinking the Confederate ironclad the "Merrimack". But the confrontation never took place because the Confederates blew it up in the river in which it had taken refuge and fled. After the war, Vanderbilt was awarded a medal for his generosity and bravery (even though he had intended the use of the "Vanderbilt" as a loan rather than a gift, it ended up being a gift).

His son, William, began to play a bigger part in the Commodore's business, as did the railroad business. At the time of his death, Vanderbilt's wealth was more than $100 million. William, who had done much of the work in growing the $20 million into $100 million, used the remaining eight years of his own life to take the family total to $200 million. That was the zenith of Vanderbilt wealth. Subsequent generations did little earning and many simply squandered their patrimony.

Yes, Cornelius was a sharp dealer and was merciless with his competitors, but he made his money through industry, thrift, and providing valuable transportation to the public at better terms than his competitors. How is that being a Robber Baron? He did bequest $1 million to build Vanderbilt University as his one charitable act, and probably should have done more. However, the public would be engaging in phony accounting if they did not include the benefits his life's provided them and enriched them through the use of his shipping by sail, steam, and rail. In my view, the real Robber Barons were those who used political connections to give themselves monopolies at the taxpayer's expense and who were able to extract high prices because of the lack of competition.

While this isn't the deepest biography I have read, I enjoyed it and found it to be informative about an important figure in American history.

Recommended.

Reviewed by Craig Matteson, Ann Arbor, MI

I made a mistake. I thought his was the highly praised life of Vanderbilt. It was not . The one I should have read was "The First Tycoon". This book is a dreary list of shipping in the Atlantic and railroads in the East in the first half of the 19th Century. It tells nothing really of what Vanderbilt was all about or what his times were like.

Cornelius Vanderbilt's life makes for anything but a dull story. It is a classic 19th century rags to riches story in which a farmer's cunning and pugnacious son forges a powerful shipping empire through any means at his disposal. The Commodore goes so far as to orchestrate a coup against an American puppet government in Nicaragua to push up the value of his stock. Renehan spins a fine yarn, but also dwells in tedious detail on the antitrust and state vs. federal government dynamic - i.e. his sections on Ogden and Gibbons - which are unnecessary and less relevant in a brief book about Vanderbilt.

Overall, the book is informative and colored with choice anecdotes. During his slow syphilis induced demise, a septuagenarian Vanderbilt takes a pair of young sisters - one only in her twenties - as mistresses which he believes to have magnetic healing powers. Ultimately the two women go on to start the first female owned brokerage - relying on inside information provided by Vanderbilt's son in an effort to keep them away from his married father - the Commodore.

Tycoon "Commodore" Cornelius Vanderbilt is an important figure in the history of American business. Author Edward J. Renehan Jr. set out to "put a face" on Vanderbilt's ambition, enterprise and mania for wealth, and he succeeded. You will get a solid understanding of the vast, rapid changes the U.S. experienced during Vanderbilt's life and his significant role in that change. His descendants, including his granddaughter, designer Gloria Vanderbilt, and her son, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, continue to be prominent. Though this interesting, reportorial biography could have focused more on the historic context and economic impact of this financial giant, and a bit less on his all-too-human failings, getAbstract finds that it deserves to be read by anyone who is interested in American history.

Where did it all come from? all that money. This is a great account of the life of Corneluis Vanderbilt still perhaps the richest American ever in his time. Adjusted for todays dollars he was estimated to be worth more then Bill Gates in our time. From a poor farmer scratching out a living to the greatest of all the railroad barons ( owned the N.Y. Central railroad system)this story tells of a ruthless businessman who undercut his competition contantly to enlarge his holdings and create wealth. After reading this book I would reccommend reading the "Fall of the House of Vanderbilt". In that book details of how the money was completely and utterly squandered away by the Commodore's heirs to that point that there are no related millionaires today 125 yeras later. Remarkable tale in the two books of hard work to get there and the squandering of millions and millions of dollars and very little left today to show for it.

Commodore is a nice and easy read, and the flow of the writing is good and easy to follow. I found the information was more a story of the business activities of C. Vanderbilt and not so much of his "life". You can however say that business was his life. The final chapters on the decline of his person and his ultimate death I feel we're very adroitly presented. All in all for history buffs looking for an overview well worth the hours spent.

Liked a review I had read in Christian Science Monitor and one in The Week, so decided to purchase from you. Have been fascinated with Vanderbilt since visiting his estate in North Carolina. Saving the book as a birthday present from my wife, so won't actually read until after July 12, 2009.

The book is rich in the factual detail of the "Commodore's" buisness rise to the top. If one wishes to know the greater detail of what was being shipped where and when and whom the mid level bean counters were during Vanderbilt's rise to economic power then this is the book for you. However, the book fails to deliver on the promises of insight into his personal life and thought. Yes it is interspersed with paragraphs here and there on his venomous capitilist demeanor and his lack of shame in his refusal to give to the more unfortunate in society but there lacks a richness and depth in bringing Cornelius to life in any kind of meaningful way. One does not get a feel for the real person from this book and in that way it lacks tremendously as a biography worthy of rapture.