Overview

The concept was simple, to link American railroads and global dominance of the seas with a railroad line through China and Russia, enter the back door of Europe, and create new royalty: the Transportation Kings. Vanderbilt, Hill, Morgan, and Harriman all pursued the grand dream. They were America’s industrial princes, poised for their greatest accomplishments, only to find that they had not considered the gauntlet awaiting them in the courts of kings and Kaisers, parliaments and congress. They awoke John Bull and helped precipitate revolution in China. They brought about the building of Lusitania and, in reaction, they owned and built the Titanic. We all know how the disaster story ends; this is how the story came about.

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This is a well documented synthesis. Steve Gittelman has a profound understanding of individuals--their passions and motivations--he weaves a unique tale while breathing life into his characters--providing an in depth view of the actions and their consequences to the players who ranged gigantic at the birth of the twentieth century. It is a dramatic story of business titans toppled by the enormity of their dreams. -- Carole Hart, director, Greensboro Historic Museum After impressive historical detective work, Steve Gittelman has revealed a fascinating, untold story. His cast of bankers, railroad tycoons and politicians may have failed to create a global shipping monopoly, but their gigantic endeavor is one more illustration of how fearless optimism and audacity in the early 20th century marked America's rapid rise to become the world's greatest economic power. -- Lance Reinheimer, executive director, The Vanderbilt Museum

This is a well documented synthesis. Steve Gittelman has a profound understanding of individuals—their passions and motivations—he weaves a unique tale while breathing life into his characters—providing an in depth view of the actions and their consequences to the players who ranged gigantic at the birth of the twentieth century. It is a dramatic story of business titans toppled by the enormity of their dreams. -- Carole Hart, director, Greensboro Historic Museum After impressive historical detective work, Steve Gittelman has revealed a fascinating, untold story. His cast of bankers, railroad tycoons and politicians may have failed to create a global shipping monopoly, but their gigantic endeavor is one more illustration of how fearless optimism and audacity in the early 20th century marked America’s rapid rise to become the world’s greatest economic power. -- Lance Reinheimer, executive director, The Vanderbilt Museum

Author Information

Steven H. Gittelman has served as president of the Board of Trustees at The Suffolk County Vanderbilt Museum for fifteen years. In his previous book, Gittelman followed his subject around the world to fashion his biography of Willie K. Vanderbilt. During that search, an obscure article in the New York Times provided him with a thread that unraveled this fascinating tale of the men who aspired global transportation dominance and how each one chased his own version of the dream, only to taste bitter failure.

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