Andrew Carnegie is the embodiment of the American dream. After emigrating to America with his family, this smart and eager lad rose from his job as a bobbin boy in a Pittsburgh cotton factory to become a telegraph messenger, Pennsylvania Railroad employee, bridge builder, bond trader, iron and steel maker, and eventually the richest man in the world. He was single-minded and relentless and a major player in some of the most violent and notorious...

"A new biography of Bunny Mellon, the style icon and American aristocrat who designed the White House Rose Garden for her friend JFK and served as a living witness to 20th Century American history, operating in the high-level arenas of politics, diplomacy, art and fashion. Bunny Mellon, who died in 2014 at age 103, was press-shy during her lifetime. With the co-operation of Bunny Mellon's family, author Meryl Gordon received access to thousands...

One of the earliest memoirs of an American capitalist, this 1920 volume recounts an immigrant's rise from clerk to captain of industry and steel magnate. Includes Carnegie's treatise on his philanthropic views. --Publisher

Isabella Stewart Gardner (1840–1924) assembled an extraordinary collection of art from diverse cultures and eras―and built a Venetian-style palazzo in Boston to share these exquisite treasures with the world. But her life and work remains shrouded in myth. Separating fiction and fact, this book paints an unforgettable portrait of Gardner, drawing on her substantial personal archive and including previously unpublished findings to offer new perspectives...

"Franklin Thomas was one of the most influential people of our time. As former president of the Ford Foundation (the first African American to hold this position), former president of the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Corporation (the first community development organization of its kind), member of countless corporate boards, and a key player in facilitating the end of the apartheid era in South Africa, Thomas shaped public policy, philanthropy,...

A biography of the Scottish immigrant who made a fortune in the steel industry and used much of it for philanthropic causes.

"The name George Soros is recognized around the world. Universally known for his decades of philanthropy, progressive politics, and investment success, he is equally well-known as the nemesis of the right--the target of sustained attacks from national populists, authoritarian regimes, and anti-Semites in the United States and around the world--because of his commitment to open society, freedom of the press, and liberal democracy. Named the Financial...

"Founder of a beauty empire, Madam C. J. Walker was celebrated as America's first self-made female millionaire in the early 1900s. Known as a leading African American entrepreneur, Walker was also devoted to an activist philanthropy aimed at empowering African Americans and challenging the injustices inflicted by Jim Crow. Tyrone McKinley Freeman's biography highlights how giving shaped Walker's life before and after she became wealthy. Poor and widowed...

Reveals how the Scottish immigrant arrived in the United States at the height of the Industrial Revolution, made his fortune in by investing in the railroads before using his wealth to fund over 2,500 public libraries around the world.