Death Of A Robber Baron

Set amidst the glittering enclaves of money, power, and privilege in America's tumultuous Gilded Age, this richly detailed mystery follows private detective Pamela Thompson into an elite world where fortunes are flaunted and scandals are hidden--one body at time. . . Death Of A Robber Baron New York City, 1891. In the spirit of Christmas, Mrs. Pamela Thompson has devoted herself to charity work, even taking an orphaned child into her Greenwich Village townhome. Her husband Jack, an ambitious banker, agrees to such generous acts as long as his wife allows him to invest his time--and her trust fund--in more lucrative opportunities. But when he risks their entire fortune on questionable copper stocks, Pamela ends up losing everything: her house, her inheritance, and even her husband. . . Penniless, Pamela is forced to move into a boarding house in the Lower East Side and accept a position at Macy's--as a store detective. Displaying an uncanny knack for the job, she's asked to investigate a private matter of thievery at a palatial "cottage" in the Berkshires. Ironically, her employer is none other than Henry Jennings, the infamous "Copper King" who sold bad stocks to her husband. But when the filthy rich scoundrel is found dead in his study, Pamela holds herself accountable--for sorting out this whole sordid business of money, motives. . .and murder.

Robber Baron is the first biography of the streetcar magnate Charles Tyson Yerkes (1837-1905), who stands alongside J.P. Morgan and Andrew Carnegie as one of the most colorful and controversial public figures in Gilded Age America. John Franch draws upon every available source to tell the story of the man who was the mastermind behind Chicago’s Loop Elevated and the London Underground, the namesake of the University of Chicago’s observatory, and the inspiration for Frank Cowperwood, the ruthless protagonist of Theodore Dreiser's Trilogy of Desire: The Financier, The Titan, and The Stoic. Despite various philanthropic efforts, Yerkes and his unscrupulous tactics were despised by the press and public, and he left Chicago a bitter man. While Yerkes’s enduring public works testify to his success and desire to leave a lasting impression on his world, Robber Baron also uncovers the cost of this boundless ambition.

At Home in the Netherlands uses a range of indicators to describe developments in the integration of non-Western migrants and their children in the Netherlands. Attention is focused on the situation of non-Western children in education, the position of non-Western migrants on the labour and housing markets, their representation in the crime figures and their degree of socio-cultural integration. The book also looks at civic integration, the mutual perceptions of the non-Western and indigenous populations, and the life situation of young people with a non-Western background.

Lord Gordon Gordon had a beginning that was as mysterious as the way he died. But in between he almost caused a war between Canada and the United States and had the greatest Robber Baron bow to his presence. Minnesota despised him. Manitoba loved him. His escapades were on the front pages of the New York Herald and the Winnipeg Free Press newspapers. Horace Greeley believed in his story as did Jay Gould. This book is based on newspaper accounts of his known life and his missing pieces are formed from the records of his true ancestors. The reports of how he died prejudiced his story and how he lived. It is the authors hope that his life will be viewed from a different perspective that elevates his humanity.

In his book The Myth of the Robber Barons, Folsom distinguishes between political entrepreneurs who ran inefficient businesses supported by government favors, and market entrepreneurs who succeeded by providing better and lower-cost products or services, usually while facing vigorous competition.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER The definitive full-scale portrait of J. Pierpont Morgan’s tumultuous life, both in and out of the public eye History has remembered him as a complex and contradictory figure, part robber baron and part patron saint. J. Pierpont Morgan earned his reputation as “the Napoleon of Wall Street” by reorganizing the nation’s railroads and creating industrial giants such as General Electric and U.S. Steel. At a time when the country had no Federal Reserve system, he appointed himself a one-man central bank. He had two wives, three yachts, four children, six houses, mistresses, and one of the finest art collections in America. In this extraordinary book, drawing extensively on new material, award-winning biographer Jean Strouse vividly portrays the financial colossus, the avid patron of the arts, and the entirely human character behind all the myths. Praise for Morgan “Magnificent . . . the fullest and most revealing look at this remarkable, complex man that we are likely to get.”—The Wall Street Journal “A masterpiece . . . No one else has told the tale of Pierpont Morgan in the detail, depth, and understanding of Jean Strouse.”—Robert Heilbroner, Los Angeles Times Book Review “It is hard to imagine a biographer coming any closer to perfection.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch “Strouse is in full command of Pierpont Morgan’s personal life, his financial operations, his collecting, and his benefactions, and presents a rich, vivid picture of the background against which they took place. . . . A magnificent biography.”—The New York Review of Books “With uncommon intelligence, maturity, and psychological insight, Morgan: American Financier is that rare masterpiece biography that enables us to penetrate the soul of a complex human being.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer

The unauthorised biography of Conrad Black, a modern day Citizen Kane.

*Includes pictures *Includes contemporary accounts *Includes online resources and a bibliography for further reading "It was the custom when men received nominations to come to me for contributions, and I made them and considered them good paying investments for the company. In a Republican district I was a strong Republican; in a Democratic district I was Democratic, and in doubtful districts I was doubtful. In politics I was an Erie Railroad man all the time." - Jay Gould The term robber baron has largely fallen into disuse in the 21st century but there was a time when it was a popular epithet that described the kind of man who, it was believed, built his fortune by taking things belonging to others. The Gilded Age and the dawn of the 20th century are often remembered as an era full of monopolies, trusts, and economic giants in heavy industries like oil and steel. Men like Andrew Carnegie built empires like Carnegie Steel, and financiers like J.P. Morgan merged and consolidated them. The era also made names like Astor, Cooke, and Vanderbilt instantly recognizable across the globe. Over time, the unfathomable wealth generated by the businesses made the individuals on top incredibly rich, and that in turn led to immense criticism and an infamous epithet used to rail against them: robber barons. The industrial might wielded by men like Gould in the later 19th century directly led to a public backlash and made President Teddy Roosevelt the "trust buster," and there has since been countless regulations to attempt to avoid the types of monopolies found over 100 years ago. However, many 20th century historians and writers pushed back against the allegations hurled at the "robber barons" and even took issue with the name. Libertarian writer John Stossel argued, "They weren't robbers, because they didn't steal from anyone, and they weren't barons-they were born poor..." Of all the men labeled as robber barons during the Gilded Age, nobody was as notorious during his time as Jason Gould, known to his few friends as Jay and his many enemies by names not suitable to print. Famed editor Joseph Pulitzer called Gould "[o]ne of the most sinister figures that ever flitted, bat-like, across the vision of the American people," and Robert G. Ingersoll said of him, "I do not believe that since man was in the habit of living on this planet anyone has ever lived possessed of the impudence of Jay Gould." In more recent times, writers have been more forgiving of Gould's actions, even as they continue to recognize his unscrupulous dealings. As Maury Klein and Joseph Calandro, Jr. observed in a 2016 edition of Financial History, "No one in United States financial and business history is as misunderstood, and under-appreciated, as Jay Gould. There are a number of reasons for this: First and foremost, Gould earned a reputation as the most hated man in America. Two early episodes, the Erie Railroad War and Black Friday, when he conceived an audacious scheme to corner the nation's gold supply in 1869, did much to create the image of him as a ruthless, unprincipled Wall Street renegade who seemed always to skirt the letter of the law." He studied every aspect he could of the booming railroad industry of the Civil War era, and then parlayed his money and connections to end up on the right side of the Stock Market crash in 1869. He would also win the infamous Erie War, and when he was swindled out of both control of the Erie and a significant part of his fortune, he did not quit. Regardless of what people thought of him, in many respects, Gould's death marked the end of an era for the land grabbers, speculators, and railroad barons who built America, just as surely as they did their own fortunes. Jay Gould: The Life and Legacy of the Railroad Executive Who Became America's Most Notorious Robber Baron analyzes the tycoon's life, why he was so widely reviled, and his lasting legacy.