American Business Leaders

Résumé du livre

This work illuminates the lives of the visionary men and women who shaped and lived the American dream. Ranging over American business history, the encyclopedia puts special emphasis on the twentieth century, spotlighting industrialists, investors, inventors, entertainment moguls, and communications pioneers. Here the reader will learn about the financier who helped bankroll the American Revolution but ended his life in poverty, the oil tycoon who made industrial society possible, the computer nerd who became the country's richest man, as well as: -- Elizabeth Boit, the daughter of a janitor, who worked her way up from knitting mill timekeeper to become a mill owner in 1897 and who eventually employed 850 people.-- John Deere, the blacksmith who sold three of his newfangled plows in 1837 and close to 15,000 just two decades later.-- George Westinghouse, who invented the revolutionary railcar air brakes after reading about a tragic train crash.-- Debbie Fields, whose chain of 650 cookie stores started 20 years ago with a single store in Palo Alto. It was so unsuccessful that at first she had to give her cookies away.-- Elisha Otis, who sold his first passenger elevator in 1867 and was forced to invent a new engine to power his invention.