America's Business

The following is a list of the titles chosen for the fall, 2006--spring, 2007 American History Book Discussion group. For times and dates, call the Sachem Public Library Welcome Desk at 631 588-5024.

Introduction

"The business of America is business."

With these words, President Calvin Coolidge summed up the ethos that made the United States the richest nation with the most powerful economy in the history of the world.

From the grim-faced Puritans to the Silicon Valley start-ups, commerce has always been at the heart of the American experience. But at what cost? And what of the future?

Please join us on this 10-month exploration of the history of America's business and economic growth, and the men & women who contributed so much to make it happen. The book discussion group will meet the last Monday afternoon of each month beginning on 25 September. Please call the Sachem Public Library Welcome desk at 588-5024 for further information.

A Gentleman of Color: The Life of James Forten, by Julie Winch. Oxford, 2002.
James Forten (1766–1842), was an African-American born a free man (his grandparents had been slaves) in Philadelphia. At age eight, James began working along side his father for Robert Bridges sail loft. A year later his father died in a boating accident and James was forced to take on additional work to provide for his family. He was 14 when he served during the American Revolution aboard the privateer Royal Lewis. Captured by the British, he was held prisoner for seven months and eventually spent a year in England where he was introduced to abolitionist philosophy. Upon his return home, he became apprenticed to a sailmaker and by 1798 he owned the company. He he became both an ardent abolitionist and outspoken opponent of African colonization. He also campaigned for temperance and women's sufferage.

Dark Genius of Wall Street: The Misunderstood Life of Jay Gould, by Edward J. Renehan. Basic, 2005.
The prototype for the "Robber Baron" and the corrupt railroad king, Jay Gould (1836--1892) overcame his humble beginings to attain great wealth buying and selling stocks. He engaged in one of the most colorful struggles in American business history: a fight with Cornelius Vanderbilt for control of the Erie Railroad, and proved himself to be a man who was not beneath using underhanded tactics--including bribery-- to get his way. Was he an empire builder? Or a cold-blooded, unscrupuous speculator. Or both.

Meet You in Hell: Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick, and the Bitter Partnership that Transformed America, by Les Standiford. Crown, 2005.
In 1892, in the face of depressed steel prices, Henry C. Frick, general manager of the Homestead plant largely owned by Andrew Carnegie, tried to cut wages of his employees and break the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers, one of the strongest unions in the country. Carnegie, who, like Frick, had begun hsi career as lowly clerks and took advantage of the business connections he made to begin amassing riches, presented himself as a friend of the working man, was at the same time planning and executing what turned out to be one of the bloodiest labor lock-outs in U.S. history, the Homestead Strike. When Frick carried out Carnegie’s union-busting scheme to the letter, the Scots-born industrialist bent over backwards to hide his participation in the scheme. And Frick, who took a bullet from a Russian anarchist named Alexander Berkman during the strike, never forgave Carnegie for disowning his actions during the lock-out. Nearly thirty years later Frick responded to a plea from Carnegie to let bygones be bygones with: “You can tell Carnegie I’ll meet him. Tell him I’ll see him in Hell, where we both are going.”

Morgan: American Finacier, by Jean Strouse. RH, 1999.
John Pierpont Morgan (1837--1913) began his career in 1857 as an accountant, and worked for several New York banking firms until he became a partner in Drexel, Morgan and Company in 1871, which was reorganized as J.P. Morgan and Company in 1895 and became one of the most important banking houses in the world. He was also a primary mover in the creation of General Electric. He wrested control of the Albany and Susquehanna RR from Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, he led the syndicate that broke the government-financing privileges of Jay Cooke, and he developed a railroad empire by reorganizations and consolidations in all parts of the United States. He also formed the U.S. Steel Corp., the first billion-dollar corporation in the world. He financed manufacturing and mining and controlled banks, insurance companies, shipping lines, and communications systems. Through his firm came enormous funds from abroad to develop American resources. By 1902, he was one of the wealthiest men in America.

Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller. Sr., by Ron Chernow. RH, 1998.
How does a man go from beign a bookeeper making .50 a day to the title of the richest man in the world? John D. Rockefeller (1839--1937) played a prominent role in the early oil industry with the founding of Standard Oil and built it into the largest company in the world. Rockefeller's His wealth grew significantly as the demand for gasoline soared. Although he was accused of running a monopoly (Standard Oil was broken up by order of the U.S. Supreme Court in 1911), Rockefeller was also a great philantrhopist. Of Rockefeller, author Chernow asserts: "What makes him problematic--and why he continues to inspire ambivalent reactions--is that his good side was every bit as good as his bad side was bad. Seldom has history produced such a contradictory figure."

Empires of Light: Edison, Tsela, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World, by Jill Jones. RH, 2003.
In the 1880s, two men of genius became embroiled in a struggle over the promotin of DC (Dircet Current) for electric power distribution and AC (alternating). Thomas A. Edison (1847--1931), who had only three months for formal schooling, rose to prominance, Like Edison, Serbian born Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) is regarded as one of the most important inventors in modern history. Upon arriving in American, Tesla was hired by Edison. They came to parting of the ways when (according to Tesla) Edison reneged on a promised $50,000 payment if Tesla successfully completed a project given to him. The now famous "War of Currents" erupted when Tesla invented an AC motor for the transmission of electrical power, which posed an economic threat to Edison's DC method (which would have required an electric power generator in every neighborhood in NYC). As part of his campaign to discredit AC as dangerous, Edison publicly electrocuted dogs, cats, and in one case, and even an elephant. But in the end, it was Tesla who emerged victorious.

The Peoples Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century, by Steven Watts. Knopf, 2005.
Henry Ford (1863--1947) eschewed the life of a farmer to wear the mantle of father of the modern assembly line used in mass production. His intense commitment to lowering costs resulted in numerous experiments and innovations, as well as the franchise system that put a dealership in every city in North America. Ford astonished the world in 1914 by offering a $5 a day wage that more than doubled the rate of most of his workers. The move proved hugely profitable. Instead of constant turnover of employees, the best mechanics in Detroit flocked to Ford, bringing in their human capital and expertise, raising productivity, and lowering training costs. was a pioneer of "welfare capitalism" designed to improve the lot of his workers and especially to reduce the heavy turnover that had many departments hiring 300 men a year to fill 100 slots. On the other hand, Ford was opposed to labor unions and was the last of the Detriot auto makers to recognize the UAW. Ford's philosophy was one of economic independence for the United States. He was a noted, often ridiculed pacifist during WWI, and was virulently anti-Semitic (Ford is the only American mentioned in Hitler's Mein Kampf).

The Warburgs: The Twentieth Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family, by Ron Chernow. RH, 1993.
The Warburgs were not only one of the world's most prominent international banking families (until Hitler's Third Reich forced them to hand over their business to Aryans in 1938), they were scholars, philanthropists, explorers, ploticians, and scientists. They were advisors to a Kaiser and two U.S. Presidents. While Paul Warburg helped to create the Federal Reserve banking system, his brother Max was hard at work building Germany's merchant (and military) fleet. They were passionate in their love for their country while trying to balance this with retaining their Jewish identity. Not surprisingly, their great wealth and influence made the Warburgs prime targets as the Nazis came to power.

Barbarians at the Gate: The Fall of RJR Nabisco, by Bryan Burrough & John Helyar. H&R, 1990.
In 1988, F. Ross Johnson, the CEO of RJR Nabisco (recently burned by an expensive failure of a smokeless cigarette product) was worried enough about he valuation of Nabisco stock to propose a Leveraged Buyout to the company's board of directors. His efforts were undercut by by "buyout king" Henry Kravis (of Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co.), who had been the first person Johnson talked to about doing the LBO and felt betrayed after learning that Johnson wanted to do the deal with another firm. Kravitz subsequently topped Johnson's own tender offer. Thus began a bidding war which came to symbolize the greed and power-mongering of the eighties. This book is based upon a series of article the authors penned for the Wall St. Journal.

DisneyWar, by James Stewart. S&S, 2005.
When Roy Disney, chairman of Walt Disney Animation and nephew of founder Walt Disney, abruptly resigned in November 2003 and declared war on chairman and chief executive Michael Eisner, he sent shock waves through the entertainment industry, corporate boardrooms, theme parks, and living rooms around the world -- everywhere Disney does business and its products are cherished. Stewart carefully charts the company's creative successes, especially in Eisner's first decade at the helm, from 1984 to 1995, which brought a tenfold return for stockholders. But all was not well. The Disney empire was rife with pain, confusion, lying and wasted opportunities and Esiner's much publicized spats not only with Disney, but with Michael Ovitz (his former best friend, who received a pay-out of $140 million for about a year's work) and Jeffrey Katzenberg (the head of Disney's movie studios, who pocketed a settlement of $280 million). Learn how this once-proud institution, long one of America's most admired and well-known businesses, has stumbled in recent years amid a disastrous swirl of egos, personalities, and bad business decisions.

Titles chosen by Brad Silverman
Annotated by Lynne Kennedy

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