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Railroaded: The Transcontinentals and the Making of Modern America
Richard White · back to the book
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorThe Box: How the Shipping Container Made the World Smaller and the World Economy Bigger
Marc Levinson · 395 pages
In April 1956, a refitted oil tanker carried fifty-eight shipping containers from Newark to Houston. From that modest beginning, container shipping developed into a huge industry that made the boom in global trade possible. The Box tells the dramatic story of the container's creation, the decade of struggle before it was widely adopted, and the sweeping economic consequences of the sharp fall in t
The Wealth and Poverty of Nations: Why Some Are So Rich and Some So Poor
David S. Landes · 650 pages
David S. Landes tells the long, fascinating story of wealth and power throughout the world: the creation of wealth, the paths of winners and losers, the rise and fall of nations. He studies history as a process, attempting to understand how the world's cultures lead to - or retard - economic and military success and material achievement. Countries of the West, Landes asserts, prospered early thro
The House of Rothschild, Vol 1: Money's Prophets, 1798-1848
Niall Ferguson · 596 pages
This second volume of Niall Ferguson's acclaimed, landmark history of the legendary Rothschild banking dynasty concludes his myth-breaking portrait of one of the most powerful and fascinating families of modern times. With all the depth, clarity and drama with which he traced the Rothschild's ascent, Ferguson shows how their power waned as conflicts from Crimea to the Second World War repeatedly t
The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt
T.J. Stiles · 719 pages
A gripping, groundbreaking biography of the combative man whose genius and force of will created modern capitalism.Founder of a dynasty, builder of the original Grand Central, creator of an impossibly vast fortune, Cornelius "Commodore" Vanderbilt is an American icon. Humbly born on Staten Island during George Washington's presidency, he rose from boatman to builder of the nation's largest fleet o
Uncommon Grounds: The History of Coffee and How It Transformed Our World
Mark Pendergrast · 452 pages
From the Publisher: Uncommon Grounds is the definitive history of coffee-from its discovery on an Ethiopian mountainside to the age of Starbucks and the coffee crisis of the twenty-first century. A sweeping epic, Uncommon Grounds uses coffee production, trade, and consumption as a window through which to view broad historical themes: the clash and blending of cultures, slavery, the rise of brand m
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari · 456 pages
From a renowned historian comes a groundbreaking narrative of humanity’s creation and evolution—a #1 international bestseller—that explores the ways in which biology and history have defined us and enhanced our understanding of what it means to be “human.” One hundred thousand years ago, at least six different species of humans inhabited Earth. Yet today there is only one—homo sapiens. What hap
Double Entry: How the Merchants of Venice Shaped the Modern World
Jane Gleeson-White · 299 pages
A fascinating exploration of how a simple system used to measure and record wealth spawned a cultural revolution. Prepare to have your idea of accounting changed forever.
The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War
Robert J. Gordon · 784 pages
The Company: A Short History of a Revolutionary Idea
John Micklethwait, Adrian Wooldridge · 272 pages
"Like all groundbreaking books, The Company fills a hole we didn't know existed, revealing that we cannot make sense of the past four hundred years until we place that seemingly humble Victorian innovation, the joint-stock company, in the center of the frame. With their trademark authority and wit, Economist editors John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge reveal the company to be one of history's
Manias, Panics and Crashes: A History of Financial Crises
Robert Z. Aliber · 397 pages
Since its introduction in 1978, this book has charted and followed the volatile world of financial markets. Charles Kindleberger's brilliant, panoramic history revealed how financial crises follow a pattern. Events of recent years and the current Eurozone continue to dominate policy and headline debates around the globe. In this updated and expanded seventh edition, Robert Z. Aliber probes the mos
Colossus: The Turbulent, Thrilling Saga of the Building of Hoover Dam
Michael A. Hiltzik · 496 pages
The definitive account of the epic construction of the Hoover Dam, one of the the 20th century's most consequential public works. "As breathtaking today as when it was completed, Hoover Dam ranks among America’s most awe-inspiring, if dubious, achievements. This epic story of the dam—from conception to design to construction—by Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and Los Angeles Times columnist Mic
Fordlandia: The Rise and Fall of Henry Ford's Forgotten Jungle City
Greg Grandin · 432 pages
The stunning, never-before-told story of the quixotic attempt to recreate small-town America in the heart of the Amazon, "Fordlandia" depicts a desperate quest to salvage the bygone America that the Ford factory system did much to dispatch.
The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance
Ron Chernow · 812 pages
The Half Has Never Been Told: Slavery and the Making of American Capitalism
Edward E. Baptist · 543 pages
Americans tend to cast slavery as a pre-modern institution —the nation's original sin, perhaps, but isolated in time and divorced from America's later success—. But to do so robs the millions who suffered in bondage of their full legacy. As historian Edward E. Baptist reveals in the prizewinning *The Half Has Never Been Told*, the expansion of slavery in the first eight decades after American inde
1929: Inside the Greatest Crash in Wall Street History--And How It Shattered a Nation
Andrew Ross Sorkin · 592 pages
1929 is a tale of power, psychology, and the seductive illusion that “this time is different.” It's about disregarded alarm bells, financiers who fell from grace, and skeptics who saw the crash coming—only to be dismissed until it was too late.
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000
Paul Kennedy · 677 pages
El eminente historiador Paul Kennedy analiza y describe el auge y la caída de las grandes potencias a lo largo de los últimos cinco siglos. La nación proyecta su poder militar según sus recursos económicos, pero el alto coste de mantener la supremacía militar la precipita a la decadencia. las grandes potencias en crisis reaccionan gastando más en defensa y se debilitan desviando recursos productiv
More Money Than God: Hedge Funds and the Making of a New Elite
Sebastian Mallaby · 482 pages
Based on unprecedented access to the industry, including three hundred hours of interviews, economist/journalist Sebastian Mallaby tells the inside story of hedge funds, from their origins in the 1960s and 1970s to their role in the financial crisis of 2007-2009. Wealthy, powerful, and potentially dangerous, hedge fund moguls have become the It Boys of 21st century capitalism. Ken Griffin started
Chocolate Wars: From Cadbury to Kraft - 200 Years of Sweet Success and Bitter Rivalry
Deborah Cadbury · 384 pages
In the early nineteenth century Richard Cadbury sent his son, John, to London to study a new and exotic commodity: cocoa. Within a generation, John's sons had created a chocolate company to rival the great English firms of Rowntree and Fry. All three firms were Quaker family enterprises, and their business aims were infused with religious idealism. As chocolate companies raced to compete around th
Open Veins of Latin America: Five Centuries of the Pillage of a Continent
Eduardo Galeano · 338 pages
The Rothschilds
Virginia Cowles · 304 pages
A comprehensive history of three generations of the Rothschilds, and their influence across two generations of European history.