This riveting book examines some of the implications for the entrepreneur of tomorrow and offers some highly informative assessments of the future structure and direction of big business.
The very successful businessman in America frequently is venerated as a national hero. This book is an eminently readable and often surprising analysis of this fascinating phenomenon. Cutting through caricatures and cliches, Barmash answers some salient questions: What propels the self-made man to fulfill his dreams of dynastic success? How does he withstand the burdens and stresses of his success? Beginning with a succinct account of the profit principle throughout history, Barmash goes on to describe the first tycoons in America, followed by interviews of dynamic innovators closer to our time. Throughout, he probes the intriguing characteristics of men whose imagination and drive parlayed small businesses into citadels of power.
|
Preface |
|
| ONE · Men and Momentum |
1 |
| 1. |
From Noon to Dawn |
1 |
| 2. |
The Success |
9 |
| 3. |
The Conglomerators |
15 |
| 4. |
Wildcatter to Wall Streeters |
23 |
| 5. |
...And the Stress |
27 |
| TWO · Business Down Through History |
34 |
| 1. |
The First 50,000 Years |
34 |
| 2. |
Money, The Root of Change |
41 |
| 3. |
Parallels: Civilization and Economics |
43 |
| 4. |
Roman Glory, Roman Decay |
45 |
| 5. |
Profit Raises the Blinds |
47 |
| 6. |
The Guilds Come and Go |
50 |
| 7. |
The Rise of the Money-Lenders |
53 |
| 8. |
Lure of the New World |
56 |
| THREE · Self-Made in America |
58 |
| 1. |
Whence Such as These? |
58 |
| 2. |
The First Tycoons |
67 |
| 3. |
Girard: Man of Anathema |
68 |
| 4. |
Astor: Trapper in Furs and Real Estate |
70 |
| 5. |
Vanderbilt: The Commodore of Sail and Rail |
72 |
| 6. |
Fisk: The First Businessman-Playboy |
74 |
| 7. |
Gould: The Devil of Wall Street |
75 |
| 8. |
Cooke: First of the Moderns |
78 |
| 9. |
Rockefeller: Greatest of Planners and Conspirators |
80 |
| 10. |
Carnegie: Steel Monopolist to Philanthropist |
84 |
| 11. |
Morgan: Financial Jupiter |
87 |
| 12. |
Ford: 15,000,000 Model T's From the Woodshed |
91 |
| 13. |
What Were They? |
94 |
| FOUR · Prototypes of Today |
95 |
| 1. |
The Dynamic Innovators |
95 |
| 2. |
David Sarnoff |
97 |
| 3. |
William J. Levitt |
106 |
| 4. |
David Schwartz |
116 |
| FIVE · On a Psychoanalyst's Couch - I |
127 |
| 1. |
X-raying the Psyche |
127 |
| 2. |
The Businessman as Patient |
132 |
| 3. |
Motivation |
136 |
| 4. |
Happiness |
142 |
| SIX · On a Psychoanalyst's Couch - II |
148 |
| 1. |
Turn a Businessman Inside Out and... |
148 |
| 2. |
The Family Relationship |
154 |
| 3. |
The Marital Relationship |
163 |
| 4. |
The Employee Relationship |
168 |
| 5. |
Ethics and Morals |
170 |
| 6. |
The Philanthropy, Culture and Humanity Kick |
172 |
| 7. |
Some Conclusions from the Chair beside the Couch |
173 |
| SEVEN · The Rulers of New York |
180 |
| 1. |
Astride America's Distribution Channels |
180 |
| 2. |
The Surprise Party |
184 |
| 3. |
Albert A. List |
186 |
| 4. |
Charles C. Bassine |
188 |
| 5. |
Chester H. Roth |
190 |
| 6. |
Eugene Ferkauf |
193 |
| 7. |
The Two Sols |
195 |
| 8. |
George Farkas |
199 |
| 9. |
What They Do |
202 |
| 10. |
The Trials and Triumphs of Meshulam Riklis |
206 |
| 11. |
"You Want a Million? Two Million?" |
213 |
| 12. |
The Tangled Web |
217 |
| 13. |
The Future Not as the Past |
220 |
| EIGHT · The Immigrant Entrepreneurs |
222 |
| 1. |
Through the Golden Portals |
222 |
| 2. |
Bluhdorn: Rider of the Gulf & Western Plains |
226 |
| 3. |
The Simple World of One Immigrant |
232 |
| 4. |
And Others Who Grabbed the Ring |
238 |
| 5. |
"We Will Prosper Here" |
240 |
| 6. |
The Trauma Runs Deep |
245 |
| NINE · Sons of the Self-Made |
248 |
| 1. |
The Complex Relationship |
248 |
| 2. |
Tracing America's Dynastic Lifelines |
258 |
|
The Astors, 258 · The
Vanderbilts, 260 · The Rockefellers, 262 · The Morgans,
264 · The Fords, 265 · The Mellons, 267 · The
Harrimans, 269 · The du Ponts, 272 · The Kennedys, 277 |
| 3. |
Changing Objectives |
280 |
| TEN · Women Who Made It |
286 |
| 1. |
Does It Matter if She's a Woman? |
286 |
| 2. |
Hazel Bishop: Chemicals to Lipsticks to Stocks |
291 |
| 3. |
Mary Wells: The "Now" Advertising Woman |
293 |
| 4. |
Dorothy Schiff: Durable Amateur on Newspaper Row |
296 |
| 5. |
Vera Neumann: "I Start Everything on As a
Painting" |
300 |
| 6. |
Ida Rosenthal: Brassieres from Paris to Papua |
303 |
| 7. |
Olive Ann Beech: Up, Up, Up from Secretary to Aircraft
Chief |
305 |
| 8. |
Thinking Women All |
308 |
| 9. |
Sometimes, It's Husband and Wife Together |
314 |
| 10. |
Prospects for the Ladies |
321 |
| ELEVEN · Shifting Opportunities --
Tomorrow's Entrepreneurs |
323 |
| 1. |
The New Business Climate |
323 |
| 2. |
The Changing Corporate Structure |
328 |
| 3. |
The Negro Businessman |
335 |
| 4. |
Shifting Opportunities |
339 |
| 5. |
Tomorrow's Entrepreneurs |
348 |
| INDEX |
355 |
Isadore Barmash, a veteran business journalist and author, was associated with the New York Times for more than a quarter-century as business-financial writer and editor. He also contributed many articles for national media, Reuters America, and the Nikon Keizai Shimbun of Japan. He has published 13 books, including Macy's for Sale and Welcome to Our Conglomerate-You're Fired! He is listed in the 57th edition of Who's Who in America.
