Axel MadsenJohn Jacob Astor: America's First Multimillionaire

Great book about Astor who surprisingly is one of the mystery men of American history. He was a very strange man, but everything he touched turned to gold. Fascinating book!

This was purchased as a gift for my sister who is an avid biography reader. I know she was pleased to receive it but I do not know whether she liked it or not.

Great book!

John Jacob Astor led the life most people do not even dare to dream about. He was a serial entrepreneur at a time when most of the world was composed of farmers. He was so successful at his businesses that when he died he controlled one-fifteenth of all personal wealth in the United States! Among many other things it is safe to say he was a very driven man.Born in relative poverty in Germany, he immigrated to the United States via England, arriving just after the Revolutionary War ended. Marrying the daughter of the woman who ran his boarding house in New York, his business career moves from the importing of musical instruments to the exporting of furs. So successful is he in the fur business that he is able to finance the establishment of the first American fort in Oregon and supports this effort with his own ships via Cape Horn. Returning east overland, his employees discover the route that subsequently becomes the Oregon Trail!This is a swashbuckler of a story which spans not just the North American Continent but the global economy as it existed in his day as well. Besides furs, he traded tea, seal skins, opium and assorted other commodities through global wars and economic recession on a scale to match the great trading houses of England, the British East India Company and the Hudson Bay Company. He was a man who took huge business risks. A key focus of the book is naturally the fur trade, the dominant wealth generator of its time. This was his first truly big score, one that he engaged in for over 20 years and the primary venture through which he amasses the fortune that provided the investment capital for all the endeavors which would follow.Alex Madsen does an excellent job of fitting Astor within the economic and political time period in which he lived. I have found information here on the fur trade I have found nowhere else. This is a very well researched book; one that not only reports on the biography of the life lived but the history of the time as well. There is a lot to appreciate here. It is a book well worth the time.

Too little about the man himself, and too much about his fur trading.

Had a hard time with this book. I put it down about half way through.

There is much to like about this book. I was particularly interested in the history of Astoria, the plight of the Tonquin, New York real-estate, and learning about "what made the man." The book provided interesting perspectives on the fur trade and dealings in the Great Lakes Region; history of Fort Michilimackinac; perspectives on the American and French Revolutions; connections between Astor and numerous people (Jefferson, Madison, Burr, Napoleon); much about the War of 1812; and early descriptions of corporate profiting in politics.My rating for the book went from four stars to three after three typos that changed the dates of activities that occurred in the 1800s to the 1900's (page 111 discussion about the Tonquin's voyage date states 1911 typo from 1811?; page 115 discussion about Astoria and the Northwest Territory date states 1911 typo from 1811?; page 169 discussion about William Astor taking the European Grand Tour date states 1913 typo from 1813?). It may not sound very important to some people but it does make one question the accuracy of all of the material of the book in a historical work when such a glaring mistake is not made once but three times.On the "shelf it", "lend it", "donate it", or "pulp it" scale - it is a "donate".

Perhaps I should not write a review of this book as I did not finish it. I found the subject--Astor, who he was, what he did, and how and why he did it--very interesting, but Madsen's treatment an example of biography at its worst. Why? Because we are presented with the data of Astor's life, but where is Astor? There is virtually nothing communicated as to what type of person he was, WHY he was so ambitious, what he felt and thought about the various activities he undertook, his successes, relative failures, etc. In many instances of course the available data of his life do not necessarily communicate the subjective life of the psyche, only the objective actions. But it is the very task of a biographer--in my view the most vital task--to artfully connect the various "dots" of data so as to reveal the subjective life within, the drama of the mind and heart reacting to events as the events unfold. You don't get that here.