The Associates: Four Capitalists Who Created California | 
|  | | | Title: | The Associates: Four Capitalists Who Created California | | Author: | Richard Rayner | | Publisher: | W. W. Norton/Atlas & Company | | Type: | Book / Hardcover | | Publication Date: | 01 January, 2007 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 0393059138 / 9780393059137 | | List Price: | $23.95 | | You Save: | $7.66 | | Amazon Price: | $16.29 | |
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Product Description
A true-life tale of ruthless ambition, staggering greed, and the making of a nation.
One hundred forty years ago, four men rose from their position as middle-class merchants in Sacramento, California, to become the force behind the transcontinental railroad. In the course of doing so, they became wealthy beyond any measure—and to sustain their power, they lied, bribed, wheedled, and, when necessary, arranged for obstacles, both human and legal, to disappear. Their names were Collis Huntington, Leland Stanford, Charles Crocker, and Mark Hopkins, and they were known as "The Big Four" or "The Associates." Their drive for money—nothing more, nothing less—was epic. Their legacy is a university, public gardens, museums, mansions, banks, and libraries--and to a large degree California itself, a state that even today owes its aura of "can-do" and limitless possibilities to The Associates.
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Customer Reviews:
• Wonderful Interpretation Of History 19 June, 2008
Richard Rayner's "Associates" is a detailed, well researched, compilation of letters, news articles and historical references to describe an era that made the American west that developed into the modern Silicon Valley. The parallels of Silicon Valley's boom and bust and sometimes unscrupulous business ventures are perfectly matched. This is a true book of scholarship written in an exciting narrative.
There is rarely a time when a historian can get into the mind of a great individual; except by inference. Rayner did the remarkable research and has brought us better than a glimpse into the minds of the Big Four or the Robber Barons. Without them, good or bad, California and Silicon Valley would not be the world's leader in technology advancement.
John McLaughlin
Author, SILICON VALLEY: 110 Year Renaissance
- Reviewed by customer ID: AJZ0A47NW9G8
• Fascinating Read; Another Good Job By Author 17 February, 2008
This book covers the history of the railroad to California, but with a special emphasis and focus on the wheelings and dealings of the railroad barons/masterminds who pulled it off. Sometimes through means (stock fraud, etc) that look pretty shady in retrospect. If you find this aspect of interest, this is the book. The author has written previously about charlatans and frauds who left little behind (see his delightful "Drake's Fortune" book). Here, to the extent the railroad barons were shysters, they also created a longstanding, monumental feat of engineering with vast economic benefits and consequences. In this, lies the tale.
- Reviewed by customer ID: AEAPGAG8DXQLT
• "the Building Of The Railroad, The Creation Of A State, And The Invention Of Big Business" 09 August, 2008
I have lived in Northern California for forty years and knew the Big Four - Crocker, Hopkins, Huntington, and Hopkins - were instrumental in creating the transcontinental railroad and all became fabulously wealthy in the process. But like many who live here, I knew very little about the nature of their involvement and the true source of their wealth.
Since Silicon Valley was not around in the latter half of the 1800s, I knew their wealth creation story had to be different than what we see today. Author Richard Rayner in his "The Associates: Four Capitalists Who Created California" does a masterful job in chronicling the story of "the building of the railroad, the creation of a state, and the invention of big business" and how these four became "as fabulously wealthy as anybody in American history." This is a story of about bent laws, broken rivals, the bribery of government officials (local, state, and federal), and sanctioned murder.
Collis Huntington, the eventual ring-leader, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, and Leland Stanford all met while running successful retail and wholesale businesses in Sacramento. They were drawn into the idea of building a transcontinental railroad by Theodore Judah who was the visionary but desperately needed money. They provided the initial stake then assumed control after Judah, attempting to find capital to buy out his financial partners, died unexpectedly.
Rayner's well researched story then focuses on the building of the first transcontinental railroad - "a legendary story, a central part of the American West's creation myth"...a triumph of will, guts, the American can-do spirit, murder, fraud, and corruption "over unimaginable difficulty and danger"..."a race between the Irish navies of the Union Pacific, laying track from the east, and the Chinese coolies of the Central Pacific, advancing from the west...built by men who cared only about money and were absolutely ruthless about money"...a story of lust for money that propelled the railroad over the mountains, through the deserts, across the plains.
By the end of the Associates' run, "the railroads - the way they run and the power they had - were regarded as corrupt, cruel, implacable, and fiendish, in stark contrast to the gratitude and excitement with which they'd been greeted thirty years before."
This is a great read for anyone living in the Golden State, for those interested in the history of the "wild west," or anyone wanting to understand the birth of big business and the eventual demand for big government to control monopolists. Now when I visit Stanford University, the Huntington Library and Botanical Gardens, Grace Cathedral (Crocker), or the Mark Hopkins Hotel, I will be brought back to this book and what these landmarks represent in California's history.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A3CZWVO53MLZI9
• Private Interests Thru Public Works 25 March, 2008
A compelling and concise history of the California railroad. One realizes that Private capital would never have been able to build the railroad. There was much financial slight-of-hand, and only a few got really rich, but the transcontinental railroad was only made possible due to govt grants and thusly it (like the Erie canal) was really a public works program, albeit a very corrupt program. But in spite of the corruption the program benefited the nation greatly.
I found myself with an odd fondness for Mr Huntington, the most tyranical of the associates. Unlike Stanford, Huntington had no pretenses about who or what he was. He worked long hours ever night at having absolute control and he did it better than anyone else. He made things happen, he willed the railroad thru the mountains. I don't believe he was in it for the money, and I know he wasn't in it for the fame....he was simply driven to dream and in so doing he changed the nation. He was so bad, he was good.
One review snobbishly slights this book because of a blunder here or there, and for overquoting. This misses the forest for the trees; If you want a great, quick, entertaining and educational read about early California this is the book for you.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A1ONKJLODYJ3KK
• A Very Frustrating Book... 16 September, 2008
i was excited to buy the book and learn about the 'Big Four' of California. I really enjoy California history and have read many other books which touch on this subject. First disappointment of many was when I realized that instead of doing his research, the author said that a Chinese undertaker caused the crocker spite fence to go up when it was a German undertaker called Nicolas Yung. Obviously the name threw him off and the author merely assumed the ethnicity. Frustrating because the author got many other simple facts wrong and also frustrating because this is something that could have been easily researched. it kind of made me feel like the author was not really serious about writing this book.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2JSD9JT5HLXUN
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