Includes bibliographical references (pages 651-679) and index

America's genius for innovation -- pt. I. Pathfinders to a new civilization: The heroes who got America going -- John Fitch : first steamboat -- Robert Fulton : successful steamboat services -- Oliver Evans : high-pressure steam engine -- Henry Miller Shreve : freed the waterways -- The steamboat war : liberating business -- Eli Whitney : the cotton gin to the machine age -- Samuel Slater : dressing America -- Francis Cabot Lowell : the Lowell girls -- Sam Colt : a mass market -- Samuel Finley Breese Morse : the telegraph -- Cyrus McCormick : American big business -- Isaac Merritt Singer : first successful American multinational -- Charles Goodyear : vulcanized rubber -- Albert Augustus Pope : democracy on wheels -- Edwin Drake : drilling for oil -- Levi Strauss : blue jeans -- Elisha Otis : the safety elevator -- Lewis Tappan : credit rating -- Theodore Dehone Judah : transcontinental railway -- The big four : Collis Potter Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins

pt. II. America takes off: Adventurous men unite a continent -- Section I. Inventors: Thomas Alva Edison : science of innovation -- Leo Hendrik Baekeland : plastic -- Wilbur and Orville Wright : wings -- Garrett Augustus Morgan : gas mask -- Edwin Howard Armstrong : modern radio -- Reginald Aubrey Fessenden, Lee de Forest, Michael Pupin

Section II. Democratizers: Henry Ford : the people's car -- Ford's loneliest hour : George Selden's patent -- George Eastman : the Kodak -- Sarah Breedlove Walker : self-made American businesswoman -- Amadeo Peter Giannini : the people's banker -- Martha Matilda Harper : retail franchise network -- Raymond "Pappy" Ingram Smith : chance -- Juan Terry Trippe : jet age -- Donald Calvin Burr : the People Express pioneer -- General Georges Doriot : venture capital

Section III. Empire builders: Ida Rosenthal : Maidenform Bra tycoon -- The blow against the corset : Caresse Crosby -- Samuel Insull : cheap electricity for all -- Philo T. Farnsworth : television -- Walt Disney : entertainment empire -- Jean Nidetch : Weight Watchers clubs -- Thomas Watson : IBM -- Herman Hollerith, John Patterson -- Thomas Watson Jr. : mainframe computers -- Ken Olsen : minicomputers -- Estee Lauder : cosmetics company -- Malcom McLean : containers, luxury travel -- Jim Sherwood -- Edwin Land : Polaroid -- Ruth Handler : Barbie

pt. III. The digital age: The electronic elves of Silicon Valley -- Gary Kildall : PC software -- Bill Gates, Steve Jobs -- Herbert Boyer and Robert Swanson : biotech industry -- Ted Turner : CNN, 24-hour electronic news -- Joan Ganz Cooney : Sesame Street -- Raymond Damadian : MRI scanner -- Russell Simmons : marketing maestro of hip-hop -- Pierre Omidyar : eBay -- Larry Page and Sergey Brin : Google -- Ten lessons -- Innovators gallery

Now available in a text-only paperback edition, "They Made America" is a stirring and supremely readable work of history--a celebration of the entrepreneurial energy that has fueled this nation since its inception

plus-circle Add Review

comment

Reviews