Foreign AffairsStiles has painted a full-bodied, nuanced picture of the man. . . . Elegance of style and fair-minded intent illuminate Stiles s latest, expectedly profound exploration of American culture in the raw.
The Boston GlobeStiles, a superb researcher, has unearthed quantities of new material and crafted them into the illuminating, authoritative portrait of Vanderbilt that has been missing for so long.
The Washington PostVery absorbing. . . . Much more than a biography. The book is filled with important, exhaustively researched and indeed fascinating details that would profit every student of American business and social history to read.
San Francisco ChronicleStiles writes with both the panache of a fine journalist and the analytical care of a seasoned scholar. And he offers a fruitful way to think about the larger history of American elites as well as the life of one of their most famous members.
The New York Times Book ReviewVanderbilt s story is indeed epic, and so is
The First Tycoon. . . .
Stiles is a perceptive and witty writer with a remarkable ability to paint a picture of the America in which Vanderbilt lived.
The Christian Science MonitorFascinating. . . . A reminder that Vanderbilt s life and times still have much to teach us.
NewsweekGracefully written. . . . [Vanderbilt] was the right man in the right place at the right time, and the meticulous Stiles seems to be the right man to tell us about it.
St. Petersburg TimesStiles has given us a balanced and absorbing biography of this colorful and often ruthless entrepreneur.
James M. McPherson, author of
Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War EraMonumental. . . . Arresting. . . . Stiles has a gift for making readers admire unsavory characters. . . . [
The First Tycoon] resembles a five-course meal at a three-star restaurant: rich and pleasurable.
Bloomberg.com
Engrossing and provocative. . . . Stiles draws on exhaustive archival research to clear away the apocryphal and celebrate Vanderbilt as an American icon.
Tulsa WorldAt long last a biography worthy of the Commodore, meticulously researched, superbly written, and filled with original insights.
Maury Klein, author of
The Life and Legend of Jay GouldStiles writes with the magisterial sweep of a great historian and the keen psychological insight of a great biographer. . . . With panache and admirable ease, Stiles maps the financial and political currents on which Vanderbilt buccaneered and shows that it was Vanderbilt, more than anyone else, who enabled business to evolve into Big Business.
Patricia O Toole, author of
When Trumpets Call: Theodore Roosevelt After the White House A brilliant exposition of the life of Cornelius Vanderbilt and the entrepreneurial environment that he shaped. Readers will look at Grand Central Station and much else in American life with fresh eyes.
Joyce Appleby, author of
The Relentless Revolution: A History of Capitalism The definitive biography of Commodore Vanderbilt. Both as portrait of an American original and as a book that brings to life an important slice of American history long neglected, this is biography at its very best. A magnificent achievement.
Arthur Vanderbilt II, author of
Fortune s Children: The Fall of the House of VanderbiltStiles brings the Commodore, warts and all, to life in this new study, which is at once up-to-date in scholarly terms, analytically incisive, and lucidly written.
Raleigh News and ObserverSweeping. . . . [A] magisterial, exemplary work . . . [that] offers entry into the storm-tossed world of our current tycoons and the rough waters they have piloted us into.
American History MagazineSuperbly researched and elegantly written. . . . Stiles s will likely prove to be the definitive biography of this epic entrepreneur.
Philanthropy Magazine 
