Empire Builders: How Michigan Entrepreneurs Helped Make America Great

by Burton W. Folsom Jr.

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1890394076
• ISBN13: 9781890394073
• Release Date: February 1998
• Publisher: Rhodes & Easton
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.3" x 0.8" x 6.3"

Customer Reviews

Another Well-Built Collection of Heroic Tales from the Inventive Period in U.S. History

For those of you who love reading about the great achievements of the various industrialists, this is a great book for you. This book is in the same spirit of Dr. Folsom's currently most widely known work "The Myth of the Robber Barons". That is, it contains a little over half a dozen chapters of various different entrepreneurs who are of great significance in business history. I recommend this book for several reasons. First, it is written from the perspective from someone who understands economics and is highly appreciative of the benign effects of free market capitalism. Tragically, such is a rarity nowadays. Second, this book contains a lot of unique information. Where else can you read detailed accounts of the pioneering vertical integration of John Jacob Astor's fur trading company, Henry Ford's revolutionary practices in mass production or Herbert Dow's crafty victory over the British bleach cartel and the German bromine cartel or the perseverance of William Kellogg in a single volume? Finally, this book contains *essentialized* history. That is, you can learn about the achievements of these great industrialists without having to commit yourself to reading an 800-paged tome biography. If this book greatly interests you, I also highly recommend: * The Myth of the Robber Barons by Burton Folsom * The Capitalist Manifesto by Andrew Bernstein * Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand

Extraordinary true stories of greatness...

I am a history and economics teacher and use this book as a core textbook in my classroom. We hear many a story of nasty businessmen these days, but seldom are we presented with stories of heroism, other than in fantasy movies or fairy tales. This is a book of real, historical heroes and villains from Michigan history. Unlike most books about businessmen, this book illustrates historic battles between government-sponsored (political) entrepreneurs and free-market (market) entrepreneurs with riveting results that run contrary to what you generally read in your grade-school history textbooks. If you cross-reference them, you will notice that the traditional history textbooks don't generally contradict the facts of this book. Instead the present select facts without the complete context and let you infer false conclusions. The fastideous refrencing and historic detail does not attempt to whitewash successful businessmen into flawless white knights, but it does not endeavour to unjustly demonize them as "robber barons" either. If you appreciate honest history, told as a chronological story with fascinating detail, this book is for you. The same author has written others of the same nature, the most well-known being "The Myth of the Robber Barons." The author teaches at Hillsdale College, which shares the author's principles. From my experience, students reading this book learn to view history with interest and inspiration rather than boredom and cynicism. It helps them to leave my classroom believing that honest effort can lead to great success.

Just a fool for Horatio Alger stories

This book is a follow-on to Folsom's, "the myth of the robber barons", a great piece on the golden age of American industrialization in the last half of the 19th century. However, This book specifically focuses on "those Michigan entrepreneurs who helped make America great" (the sub-title). The story of John Jacob Astor in the fur business says it all. It was his fur business against that of the US governments'. Incentives being what they are, Astor florished while the government agent was a miserable failure, but not before dishonestly trying to run Astor out of business. It's the same story with the railroads both in Michigan and across the Pacific northwest; the ones built with private money versus the ones built with government subsidies. Always the same old story! Private ventures have to satisfy market demand while the purveyors for the government ignore it, as though they're living in some parallel dimension. One suceeds while the other is a collosal waste of time and money. The ensuing chapters catalogue the exploits of Herbert Dow (chemicals), of Will Kellogg (cereal), of William Durant (GM), of Stevens Mason (the first govenour), and of Henry Ford. All of these men were tireless workers with incredible judgement, who engaged in sound business practices while possesing unparalleled visions of the future. It's truly remarkable to live their stories thru these chapters. I own a business with a partner like this and it's fascinating just watching how he operates day-to-day. It's a lot of unusual qualities all bottled up in one person. They don't come along every day, and when you recognize that socialists have always tried to neuter them, you realize why socialist seconomic systems are always doomed to failure. These men created thousands of jobs by pursuing their own personalized self interests. It's right out of Adam Smith's "the wealth of nations." This is an inspiring read, one all would be entrepreneurs should familiarize themselves with.

Juicy Story, Not Boring at All

I grew up in Michigan, but had little idea of these ripping good tales. If you liked this book, try also the delightful "Eighty Acres."

A classic in its own time

Burton Folsom's Empire Builders is a stunning tour de force--a compelling tale of great entrepreneurs and how their contributions carved a great state out of a mosquito-infested, swamp-filled territory.The stories of how Will Kellogg got going in the corn flakes business, how Herbert Dow whipped the German bromine cartel, how John Jacob Astor built a flourishing fur trade in direct competition with the federal government, and how Henry Ford and Billy Durant made Michigan a car-producing behemoth are among the fascinating accounts Folsom weaves into this book. Underlying it all is a time-honored principle that so many of today's historians (being left-leaning tenured academics living in their own world while feeding off the toil of the very risk-taking businesspeople they love to criticize)seem to ignore: get government involved in enterprise and the result is poverty and disaster; leave people alone in a free society and the result is opportunity and prosperity for ! all.Thank you, Dr. Folsom, for this most enlightening and lively history. I hope your employer lets you write many more such works.