Robber Baron
About the Book
Standing alongside J. P. Morgan, Carnegie, and Rockefeller, Charles Tyson Yerkes (1837-1905) was one of the most influential and controversial public figures in America. Robber Baron is the first biography of the traction magnate who was behind the Chicago Loop Elevated, an investor in the London Underground, namesake of the University of Chicago's observatory, and vilified as Frank Cowperwood in Theodore Dreiser's trilogy, The Financier, The Titan, and The Stoic.After losing his fortune and being jailed for financial improprieties in Philadelphia, Yerkes used political blackmail to secure a pardon. With his boundless ambition intact, he relocated to Chicago and made millions from questionable financial transactions, while also using his influence and charm to assemble one of the world's finest mass transit networks. Despite various philanthropic efforts, Yerkes and his methods were despised by the press and public, and he left Chicago a bitter man. He moved to London, organizing much of the Underground, battling J. P. Morgan, and romancing Emilie Grigsby, the love of his life, before his death at age 68.
John Franch has drawn upon every available source, including newspapers, memoirs, credit reports, court filings, bankruptcy records, and correspondence to tell the complete story of a man desperate to leave a lasting impression on his world. Yerkes's enduring public works and remarkable history are a testament to his success, but Robber Baron reveals that his legacy wasn't as sparkling as he might have hoped.
About the Author
John Franch is coauthor of An Illini Place: Building the University of Illinois Campus.Reviews
"A welcome addition to the surprisingly small shelf of full-length biographies of Chicago's storied entrepreneurs and can be read for profit by anyone intrigued by one of the most notorious of the men to have built the material foundations on which the city's prosperity has come to rest."--Chicago Tribune"A superb biography: The research is thorough, the prose is clear, the narrative is compelling and the judgments are fair."--Wall Street Journal
"A fascinating window into the workings of laissez-faire capitalism. Yerkes, one of the most notorious self-made men of nineteenth-century America, embodied the drive, avarice, and unscrupulousness of his age--taking each to its limits. . . . Franch's narrative of the ups and down of Yerkes's career is well written and has considerable dramatic tension."--Enterprise & Society
"It's a fascinating tale of wheeling and dealing in the Gilded Age."--Sky & Telescope Magazine
"The biography that this rich subject deserves"--Railroad History
Blurbs
"Biographies of American capitalists are having a big impact today. Robber Baron is well-constructed and lively, and will fill an important gap in the historical literature of the Gilded Age."--Roger A. Bruns, author of The Damndest Radical: The Life and World of Ben Reitman, Chicago’s Celebrated Social Reformer, Hobo King, and Whorehouse Physician
Awards
• Winner, ILLINOIS STATE HISTORICAL SOCIETY AWARDS, 2007Related Titles
