Sublime
An inspiration engine for ideas
Key West was also ideally located as a coaling station for Navy ships patrolling the strategic waters of the Caribbean. In short, Flagler argued, Key West would become the foremost port on the Atlantic coast of the United States.
Les Standiford • Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean
About a mile away from the Orleans Ballroom, on St. Charles Avenue, stands the old headquarters of the United Fruit Company. There they traded in bananas, shaped the history of Central America, and provided the template for the modern multinational corporation. The heyday of United Fruit can be traced to Samuel Zemurray. In 1877, he was born to a J
... See moreImani Perry • South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation
Their creed was summed up in two quotes: Commodore Vanderbilt’s “Law? What do I care for law? Hain’t I got the power?” and J. P. Morgan’s “I owe the public nothing.”
Robert A. Caro • The Power Broker
AT&T’s savior was Theodore Vail, who became its president in 1907, just a few years after Millikan’s friend Frank Jewett joined the company.11 In appearance, Vail seemed almost a caricature of a Gilded Age executive: Rotund and jowly, with a white walrus mustache, round spectacles, and a sweep of silver hair, he carried forth a magisterial conf
... See moreJon Gertner • The Idea Factory: Bell Labs and the Great Age of American Innovation
Though he had received a charter from the Florida legislature granting him rights to an extension of his lines to Fort Dallas, that claim presumably constituted an insurance policy for some distant future. Flagler saw no immediate reason to press his road beyond Palm Beach, not when the “city” making its blandishments was little more than a squatte
... See moreLes Standiford • Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean
More important, Tarbell did not understand that the great Gould–Vanderbilt–Scott trunk line battles were never primarily about oil; they were about dominating the grain traffic routes to Chicago and the Midwest. In the early days especially, oil freight was hardly more than ballast for the much bigger business of grain shipping.
Charles R. Morris • The Tycoons: How Andrew Carnegie, John D. Rockefeller, Jay Gould, and J. P. Morgan Invented the American Supereconomy
Flagler did not want for distractions from his devastated personal life, however. Hardly had he embarked upon a career in hotel-building than he realized that transporting customers to these emporia of delight was as important a link in the process as moving crude oil to his refineries had been so many years before.
Les Standiford • Last Train to Paradise: Henry Flagler and the Spectacular Rise and Fall of the Railroad that Crossed an Ocean
Ivar devised a more elegant solution to this problem. It was an ingenious piece of financial engineering that would survive the test of time. Ivar decided to introduce a new type of security, which he called a “B Share.” Ivar began with Swedish Match. He divided its common shares into two classes. Each class would have the same claim to dividends a
... See moreFrank Partnoy • The Match King: Ivar Kreuger, The Financial Genius Behind a Century of Wall Street Scandals
A year later, in partnership with Wellington and George Blanchard, he proudly formed the firm of James J. Hill Company. He negotiated an exclusive arrangement as forwarding agent for the Saint Paul and Pacific Railroad whereby his firm would transfer produce from riverboats to this firm’s rails that pointed westward to Minneapolis and up the Minnes
... See more