Customer Reviews

John Jacob Astor: America's First Multimillionaire

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John Jacob Astor led the life most people do not even dare to dream about. He was a serial entrepreneur at a time when most of the world was composed of farmers. He was so successful at his businesses that when he died he controlled one-fifteenth of all personal wealth in the United States! Among many other things it is safe to say he was a very driven man.

Born in relative poverty in Germany, he immigrated to the United States via England, arriving just after the Revolutionary War ended. Marrying the daughter of the woman who ran his boarding house in New York, his business career moves from the importing of musical instruments to the exporting of furs. So successful is he in the fur business that he is able to finance the establishment of the first American fort in Oregon and supports this effort with his own ships via Cape Horn. Returning east overland, his employees discover the route that subsequently becomes the Oregon Trail!

This is a swashbuckler of a story which spans not just the North American Continent but the global economy as it existed in his day as well. Besides furs, he traded tea, seal skins, opium and assorted other commodities through global wars and economic recession on a scale to match the great trading houses of England, the British East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company. He was a man who took huge business risks. A key focus of the book is naturally the fur trade, the dominant wealth generator of its time. This was his first truly big score, one that he engaged in for over 20 years and the primary venture through which he amasses the fortune that provided the investment capital for all the endeavors which would follow.

Alex Madsen does an excellent job of fitting Astor within the economic and political time period in which he lived. I have found information here on the fur trade I have found nowhere else. This is a very well researched book; one that not only reports on the biography of the life lived but the history of the time as well. There is a lot to appreciate here. It is a book well worth the time.

Found it to be a interesting look at the man behind the millions. The main focus of the book is aimed at examining how he made his fortune, sometimes in too much detail. I was expecting to find more information on how his fortune stood in relation to the times and how he spent his money, but Astor was known more for making money, not spending it. The book is more like a study in the business of late 18th century trapping, merchant shipping and real estate than it is about Astor, but that is the underlying theme of the book as well. Astor was the biggest business man in all three areas. The story of Astor deals with wealth, politics and war and how they were all connected. Well researched book and easily read. RECOMMENDED.

Perhaps I should not write a review of this book as I did not finish it. I found the subject--Astor, who he was, what he did, and how and why he did it--very interesting, but Madsen's treatment an example of biography at its worst. Why? Because we are presented with the data of Astor's life, but where is Astor? There is virtually nothing communicated as to what type of person he was, WHY he was so ambitious, what he felt and thought about the various activities he undertook, his successes, relative failures, etc. In many instances of course the available data of his life do not necessarily communicate the subjective life of the psyche, only the objective actions. But it is the very task of a biographer--in my view the most vital task--to artfully connect the various "dots" of data so as to reveal the subjective life within, the drama of the mind and heart reacting to events as the events unfold. You don't get that here.

I bought this book to learn about Astor and how he made his fortunes. The book goes into almost too much depth in regards to the fortune made in fur trading and shipping. Out of the 25 chapters, 23 were discussing nearly every detail of Astor, his men, indians, and his competition in regards to trading and shipping. In chapter 23, the author finally gets to where he claims Astor made his largest fortune, real estate. Since that is where he made the bulk of his fortune, then why did the author only devote one chapter to this topic? Most people who buy this book will do so to learn how Astor made his fortune, that is not explained well enough. I have to give the author credit, though, he did uncover many details that the other Astor biographers failed to see.

Madsen takes the reader through an interesting account of the early fur trade and the opening of the American West. There are interesting anecdotes from Astor's deaings with historical and political figures of the time. However, if you are looking for information on his later business dealings and the development of Astor into New York's largest property owner and landlord then you will be disappointed. Nine tenths of his book is devoted to the development of the American Fur Company and the travials of those who forged through the wild countryside on Astors behalf. There is nothing in this book about how he dealt with tenants, advertised properties, developed systems of management for properties, financing, leverage, nothing.
So buy it for an interesting histort of the time but don't buy it if your looking for information on how one of the great Real Estate investors of his time developed and managed his system of success.

AN INTERESTING BOOK, BUT VERY LITTLE INFORMATION ABOUT THE HUGE AMOUNT OF WORTH GENERATED BY THE REAL ESTATE OWNED BY THE ASTOR FAMILY AND THE CRATION OF THE WALDORF ASTORIA ONE OF THE FAMILY MOST FAMOUS LANDMARKS. IT DID GIVE A LOT OF INSIGHT TO AMERICAN POLITICAL LIFE IN THE EARLY 1800'S WHEN JAMES MADISON AND JAMES MONROE WERE PRESIDENTS.

The book was a book from the Phoenix public Library and it was in poor condition, because all all the people reading this book.

Factually a very concrete and readable text on Astor. The author, however, fails to see the evil that one man could create. Astor, described in "Gotham" as Americas first drug dealer because of his role in the opium trade, was also a vicious landlord who delighted evicting widows, and an environmental rapist who killed hundreds of thousands of bison and beaver. There is no evidence that any of this even mildly annoys the author.