“I am afraid of this man”

Pulitzer Prize-winning author T.J. Stiles tells the dramatic story of Cornelius “Commodore” Vanderbilt, the combative man and American icon who, through his genius and force of will, did more than perhaps any other individual to create modern capitalism. Commodore Vanderbilt had a troubled but ultimately successful relationship with high society in New York. After years of mutual hostility, the turnabout came with his success in helping to invent the giant corporation. The practice of corporate diplomacy changed his own character to some extent, and the riches he gained allowed him to overshadow the patricians and force his way into their company. His business and social success set the stage for the later Vanderbilt dynasty that came to define the lasting idea of Gilded Age social aristocracy.

T.J. Stiles is the author of The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (winner of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award), and Jesse James: Last Rebel of the Civil War, a New York Times Notable Book and a Journalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. A past Gilder Lehrman Fellow in American History at the New York Public Library’s Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center for Scholars and Writers, he is currently working on a biography of George Armstrong Custer with the support of a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation.