It is a story which has lead individuals with business ideas to garner great success in the world of business and in their professions. This Robert Updegraff classic is often used in business schools and by individuals studying entrepreneurship, advertising, and business.

    They gave living reality to that great golden legend: The American Dream. Most were self-made in the Horatio Alger tradition. Those whose beginnings were blessed with wealth parlayed their inheritances many times thru the same methods as their rags-to-riches compatriots: shrewdness, ruthlessness, determination or by combining all three. The Age of the Moguls is not overly concerned with the comparative business ethics of these men of money. The best of them made deals, purchased immunity & did other things which in 1860, 1880 or even 1900, were considered no more than smart by their fellow Americans, but which today would give pause to the most conscientiously dishonest promoter. Holbrook doesn't pass judgments on matters that have baffled moralists, economists & historians. He's less concerned with how these men achieved their fortune as much as how they disbursed the funds. Holbrook has written a captivating study of the days when America's great fortunes were built; when futures were unlimited; when tycoons trampled across the land. Few writers today could range backwards & forwards in American history thru the last century & a half, & could take their readers to a dozen different sections of the country or combine the lives of over 50 famous men in such a way as to produce a continuous & exciting narrative of sponsored growth.