Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt

By Edward J. Renehan Jr.

Categories: Biographies & Memoirs, Business & Money

Commodore (2007, Basic Books) is Edward J. Renehan Jr.'s biography of Cornelius Vanderbilt. It follows him from ferrying passengers across New York Harbor from Staten Island as a teenager to his rise as a steamboat operator, partner of Thomas Gibbons and railroad baron who built the New York Central, becoming one of the richest Americans of the nineteenth century. Renehan describes his rate wars and stock fights and his difficult relationships with his family, and considers how he helped shape American capitalism.

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