American Business leaders from John Jacob Astor and J.P. Morgan to Bill Gates and Oprah Winfrey
More than any other nation, America has produced an extraordinary cast of entrepreneurial giants in its 200-year history. Great fortunes have been built again and again, rising on the shoulders of companies that themselves have risen with new industries and entire new economies.
In each case, these fortunes have begun with a single, driven, larger-than-life character. Where would we be without Andrew Carnegie, Henry Ford, Ray Kroc, or Bill Gates? What does it take to join the ranks of this extraordinarily elite club?
Here, in one volume, is a fascinating and entertaining look at the men and women who have become masters of the universe. H.W. Brands lets their complex characters speak for themselves, through the retelling of each person's life and business fortunes. There may be as many ways to build an empire as there are men and women who have done it, but in over two centuries America has consistently produced the greatest succession of empire builders in history.