Six Tycoons: The Lives of John Jacob Astor, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Andrew Carnegie, John D Rockefeller, Henry Ford and Joseph P K

John D Rockefeller. Cornelius Vanderbilt. Andrew Carnegie. John Jacob Astor. Henry Ford. Joseph P Kennedy. Even today, long after their deaths, the names of these six men continue to be associated with wealth and power. When they were alive, they dominated their worlds as few men had done before, and few have done since. These are the life stories of six of the richest men who ever lived in America. Their lives offer us windows into ways of life over two centuries that most of us can only imagine, and an opportunity to glimpse times when laws, attitudes, prejudices and opportunities were very different from today. Their achievements - financial, political and social - continue to affect us, for good or ill, to this day. Their mistakes still offer important lessons about the acquisition, use and abuse of wealth and power. And had they not lived, the history of America - and the world - might have been very different indeed.

Wyn Derbyshire originally trained as a research chemist, gaining a PhD from the University of Cambridge before qualifying as a lawyer. He has for many years been interested in financial history. He is writing a series of biographies of tycoons for Spiramus Press.