Summary of Michael A. Hiltzik's Iron Empires

By IRB Media

Get the Summary of Michael A. Hiltzik's Iron Empires in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. Original book introduction: In 1869, when the final spike was driven into the transcontinental railroad, few were prepared for its seismic aftershocks. Once a hodgepodge of short, squabbling lines, America’s railways soon exploded into a titanic industry helmed by a pageant of speculators, crooks, and visionaries. The vicious competition between empire builders such as Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, J. P. Morgan, and E. H. Harriman sparked stock market frenzies, panics, and crashes; provoked strikes that upended the relationship between management and labor; transformed the nation’s geography; and culminated in a ferocious two-man battle that shook the nation’s financial markets to their foundations and produced dramatic, lasting changes in the interplay of business and government.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Nov 27, 2021
• ISBN: 9781638158592

IRB Media

With IRB books, you can get the key takeaways and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

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Insights on Michael Hiltzik's Iron Empires

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

John Quincy Adams, while witnessing the first passenger train accident, wrote that he had never before been exposed to such suffering.

#2

Vanderbilt, having built a modest fortune ferrying passengers across New York Harbor, went on to become one of the richest men in America.

#3

Vanderbilt, on the other hand, was always very kind to his rival, even when he was losing money. He saw in him a kindred spirit, a man who had risen from humble beginnings to become a successful businessman.

#4

Vanderbilt was a tough businessman, and he had no problem going after anyone who tried to cheat him.

#5

Vanderbilt, who turned 40 in 1834, was now worth half a million dollars. He invested his money in steamboats, which led to the creation of the New York Harlem Railroad.

#6

The North was industrialized and industrialized faster than the South, largely due to the expansion of the railroad system in the 1850s.

#7

In the early 1850s, a New York merchant named Asa H. Whitney proposed a railway that would connect Lake Michigan to the Pacific Ocean. His plan was largely ridiculed, but it sparked the interest of railroad companies that wanted to build a railway across the continent.

#8

The Central Pacific and Union Pacific lines were built by two completely different companies, but they met in the middle to create the first transcontinental railroad.

#9

The second and third rules were to first turn a railroad into a business, and second, to focus on the actual railroad lines rather than the stock they were built on.

#10

The author’s great-great-grandfather, Cornelius Vanderbilt, was the founder of the New York City railroad company, the Harlem Line. In 1863, the aldermen of New York City voted to revoke his franchise over a financial scandal. In response, Vanderbilt bought up all the Harlem Line stock that was being sold by the aldermen.

#11

Vanderbilt’s monopolistic tactics on the Harlem River Line brought him to the attention of the authorities, who eventually took down his steamboat business.

#12

Vanderbilt’s steamboat monopoly extended from Lake Erie to New York City.

#13

The four men who personified the emergence of American capitalism in the late 1800s were Cornelius Vanderbilt, Jay Gould, Jim Fisk, and Drew. Their unscrupulousness became part