John Jacob Astor : America's First Millionaire by Axel Madsen


Book Description
A riveting biography of John Jacob Astor, the first American multinational entrepreneur At his death in 1848, John Jacob Astor was the richest man in the United States. Ruthless, tightfisted but with an amazing gift for organizing businesses, Astor built an empire that spanned the commercial world of his time. Astor had an uncanny knack for getting out of an industry just before it went bust: he liquidated his China clippers just as tea from India and Japan cut into the China tea trade; he dropped his fur interests just as fashion shifted and before furs became too scarce to be used in the emerging ready-made clothing industry. He then successfully converted profits into Manhattan real estate. Written by bestselling biographer Axel Madsen, John Jacob Astor tells the fascinating tale of the immigrant son of a butcher who made his fortune in a new world where his money influenced public policy and led him to socialize with presidents and kings, and illuminates the story of the beginning of big business in America.

OxfordBooks.com / Oxford, MS