As I read through this story, I came increasingly to admire the mind and character of Vanderbilt himself. He emerges as a complex, driving, demanding, principled, and, above all, far-seeing builder of first steam ships lines and then railroads, each of which built and then dominated the America of their eras. This long book about a long and important life only very occasionally looses its narrative drive in the details of deals, wars, betrayals, and successes that characterized Vanderbilt's life. The book was justly chosen for the 2010 Pulitzer Prize in biography and the 2009 National Book Award in non-fiction as well as a number of other distinguished awards. Stiles has crafted a marvelous biography of the man and the era in which he amassed his great fortune. In following the life of Commodore Vanderbilt (an eponymous title), T.J.
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