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Mellon: An American Life Audiobook
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(3.01) - 97 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
A landmark work from one of the preeminent historians of our time: the first published biography of Andrew W. Mellon, the American colossus who bestrode the worlds of industry, government, and philanthropy, leaving his transformative stamp on each. Following a boyhood in nineteenth-century Pittsburgh, Andrew Mellon overcame painful shyness to become one of America’s greatest financiers. Across an unusually diverse range of enterprises, he would build a legendary personal fortune, tracking America’s course to global economic supremacy. Personal happiness, however, eluded him. He had been bred to do one thing, and that he did with brilliant and innovative entrepreneurship. Mellon’s wealth and name allowed him to dominate Pennsylvania politics, and under presidents Harding, Coolidge, and finally Hoover, he made the federal government run like a business. But this man of straightforward conservative politics was no politician. He would be hailed as the architect of the Roaring Twenties, but, staying too long, would be blamed for the Great Depression, eventually to find himself a broken idol. David Cannadine’s magisterial biography brings to life a towering, controversial figure, casting new light on our history and the evolution of our public values.
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"This was an amazing book - extremely well written, detailed, and researched. A great view of American history, politics, art and the Mellon family. The events of today (polarized political camps) is also demonstrated during the 20's and 30's of the last century. This is not a fast read."
— Ed (4 out of 5 stars)
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“A commanding biography, unsparing in revelation, lively in its writing, rigorous in its scholarship, astute in its judgments, and altogether a major contribution to American history.”
— Harold Evans, New York Times bestselling author of The American Century and They Made America -
“A fascinating biography…A sprawling work for a sprawling life.”
— New York Times -
“Absorbing…Cannadine writes like a storyteller, and the book often reads as compulsively as one of those immense fictional sagas that weigh down the bestseller lists. Sin and redemption are always close to the center of those family tales, and so they are in Mellon.”
— New York Review of Books -
“Professor Cannadine brings compassion and fairness to his subject…Cannadine’s recounting of Mellon’s public career make this a worthy contribution to our understanding of the man and his era.”
— Booklist (starred review) -
“Cannadine tackles every aspect of a towering American figure…This is a valuable, comprehensive look at an important American life.”
— Publishers Weekly
Mellon Listener Reviews
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" Fascinating read-the author had enough of his personal letters to give the reader a true sense of the man. Stalled at the end when it covered his family after his death, as frankly they were as fascinating. But all in all well worth the time spent. "
— Calvin, 1/21/2012 -
" Reading this book reminds me of Adam's texted message from the tap dance show. Good thing I do not currently have any shoelaces. "
— Barbara, 11/26/2011 -
" Very long but a great history of the entire family, beginning with Thomas Mellon (The Judge); really showing how they played a major role in American history. "
— Les, 4/20/2011 -
" Very long but a great history of the entire family, beginning with Thomas Mellon (The Judge); really showing how they played a major role in American history. "
— Les, 1/23/2011 -
" Reading this book reminds me of Adam's texted message from the tap dance show. Good thing I do not currently have any shoelaces. "
— Barbara, 6/17/2009
About David Cannadine
David Cannadine was born in Birmingham, England, and educated at Cambridge, Oxford, and Princeton. He is the editor and author of many acclaimed books, including The Decline and Fall of the British Aristocracy, which won the Lionel Trilling Prize and the Yale Univeristy Press Governors’ Award; Aspects of Aristocracy; G. M. Trevelyan; The Pleasures of the Past; History in Our Time; and Class in Britain. He has taught at Cambridge and Columbia Universities and is now an honorary fellow at the Institute of Historical Research, University of London, and professor of history at Princeton University.
About John H. Mayer
John H. Mayer, author and Earphones Award–winning narrator, is a character actor whose voice has been heard on numerous commercials, animated programs, audiobooks, and narrations including E! Entertainment’s Celebrity Profiles. He was a five-year member of the Groundlings comedy theater company in Los Angeles. He is also the co-author of Radio Rocket Boy, an award-winning short film.