This is a great book! The author divides entrepreneurs into the two categories of market and political entrepreneurs. Political entrepreneurs depend on the government for financial backing, political favors, real estate bargains, etc., while market entrepreneurs rely on the free market to accomplish their ends. The author shoots down the traditional lumping together of nineteenth- and twentieth-century capitalists under the description "robber barons" by pointing out the differences in approach between an honest businessman and a businessman who uses the government to "steal" from others. Presented in biographical story fashion, the book makes interesting reading, although the closing chapter (where the author attempts to sum things up) is superfluous. Key figures featured in the book are Cornelius Vanderbilt, James J. Hill, The Scrantons, Charles Schwab, John D. Rockefeller, and Andrew Mellon.
This book makes a great adjunct to history, government, and/or economics studies.
