American History Revised (84 page)

Jack London, “The Economics of the Klondike,”
The Atlantic Monthly Review of Reviews
, Jan. 1900, pp. 70–72; clothes washed in Hawaii from W. E. Woodward,
The Way Our People Lived
, p. 274; John Sutter from Andro Linklater,
Measuring America
, pp. 238–40.

Louis Menand,
The Metaphysical Club
, pp. 165–75; for a more technical explanation of the mathematics, see
http://www.law.berkeley.edu/faculty/sklansky
, “Chapter 9 Problems,” and especially Paul Meier and Sandy Zabell, “Benjamin Pierce and the Howland Will,”
Journal of the American Statistical Association
, vol. 75, no. 371, pp. 497–506,
http://listserv.dartmouth.org/scripts/wa.exe?A2=ind0105d&L=chance&D=1&T=O&P=176
.

Vanderbilt wealth and currency circulation from Michael Kazin, “Ruthless in Manhattan,”
New York Times
, May 10, 2009, p. 24; Frank Kintrea, “The Great Vanderbilt Will Battle,” in Byron Dobell, ed.,
A Sense of History
, pp. 361–409; “as much as anyone ought to have” and “give away the surplus” from Wayne Andrews,
The Vanderbilt Legend
, p. 173.

Wayne Andrews,
The Vanderbilt Legend
, pp. 217–23.

Mark Perry,
Grant and Twain
, pp. 130–33, 157–59.

“Any fool can make a fortune” from Arthur T. Vanderbilt II,
Fortune’s Children
, p. 73; “No yachts for me!” and Andrew Carnegie from Wayne Andrews,
The Vanderbilt Legend
, pp. 228, 368; Frederick Vanderbilt from Jerry E. Patterson,
The Vanderbilts
, pp. 279–80;
New York Sun
quote from W. A. Croffut,
The Vanderbilts
, p. 244; 1973 family reunion from Arthur T. Vanderbilt II,
Newsweek
, July 9, 1990, Letters to the Editor, p. 10.

Previous two bankruptcies from Gerald Gunderson,
The Wealth Creators
, p. 190; startup capital and factory size from James J. Flink,
The Automobile Age
, p. 41; amount of capital needed over the next forty years from Peter Baida,
Poor Richard’s Legacy
, p. 194; ninety-three-minutes-per-car production line from Wyn Craig Wade,
The Titanic: End of a Dream
, p. 20; “sixteen cars behind” from Harold Evans,
They Made America
, p. 245.

Peter Harry Brown and Pat A. Broeske,
Howard Hughes
, p. 10; Warren Buffett from Cort Furniture Rental (a Berkshire Hathaway company) ad,
Forbes
, Oct. 30, 2006, p. 225.

Russell H. Conwell,
Acres of Diamonds
, Harper & Brothers, 1915, p. 12; Henry Comstock from Robert Sobel,
The Money Manias
, p. 105; Alexander Graham Bell from Pat Choate,
Hot Property
, pp. 62–63; Alvah Roebuck from John Steele Gordon,” No Respect,”
American Heritage
, Sept. 1993, p. 16; Alex Malcolmsen from Douglas Brinkley,
Wheels for the World
, p. 241; Will Durant from Stephen Birmingham,
Our Crowd
, p. 349–50; Lenin from Peter Schweizer,
Reagan’s War
, p. 7; Warner and Zanuck from
http://www.tenonline.org/art/usa/008.html
and
9812.html
; Carlson and Eastman Kodak from Elizabeth Brayer,
George Eastman
, p. 607; Ford and Volkswagen from James J. Flink,
The Automobile Age
, pp. 308, 321, 324; Toyota and Nissan from Douglas Brinkley,
Wheels for the World
, p. 588; Ray Kroc from John F. Love,
McDonald’s
, pp. 70–71; Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak from
www.tenonline.org/art/usa/9812.html
; Truman from Ralph Keyes,
The Wit & Wisdom of Harry Truman
, p. 74.

“most thanked man in the world” and refund of war contract profits from Carl W. Ackerman,
George Eastman
, pp. 493, 271 (the actual word in the
New York Times
quote is “bethanked,” which we modernized into “thanked”); “largest single contribution,” “would up a liberal,” “extra pay for extra work,” war contracts profit, “pie-faced mutts,” and Seneca quote from Elizabeth Brayer,
George Eastman
, pp. 278, 362, 178, 401, 346, 527; Ford’s 370% turnover, “a workman sticks up his head, hit it,” and “war all the time … keep one part of one’s heart a little soft,” from Richard Tedlow,
Giants of Enterprise
, pp. 164, 112, 93; see Bernard Weisberger, “You Press the Button, We Do the Rest,”
American Heritage
, October 1972 (vol. 23, no. 6) and
www.georgeeastmanhouse.org
.

Bernard Baruch from Christopher Cerf and Victor Navasky,
The Experts Speak
, pp. 48–49; “five 30-percent rallies” from
Fortune
, Nov. 2, 1992, p. 35; Mark Hulbert, “25 Years to Bounce Back? Try 4 (1/2),”
New York Times
, April 26, 2009, p. BU-5.

Henry Wallace from Cerf and Navasky,
The Experts Speak
, p. 54; Joseph C. Goulden,
The Good Years: 1945–1950
, pp. 92–94.

Astor quote from Stephen Birmingham,
America’s Secret Aristocracy
, p. 115; JFK and father’s wealth from Paul B. Fay,
The Pleasure of His Company
, pp. 10–11; young Alice Roosevelt from Betty Boyd Caroli,
The Roosevelt Women
, p. 398, and Michael Teague,
Mrs. L: Conversations with Alice Roosevelt Longworth
, p. 14; Lawrence H. Summers and Laurence J. Kotlikoff, “The Role of Intergenerational Transfers in Aggregate Capital Formation,”
Journal of Political Economy
89 (1981), pp. 706–32, quoted
in Carole Shammas,
Inheritance in America
, p. 3; see John A. Brittain,
Inheritance and the Inequality of Material Wealth.

Voter participation statistics from
www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781453.html
; Grover Cleveland from Harold Evans,
The American Century
, p. 30; Theodore Roosevelt from Paul Grondahl,
I Rose Like a Rocket
, p. 182; Harry Truman from
Bits ‘n’ Pieces
, Jan. 1988, pp. 9–12; John Lukacs,
Outgrowing Democracy
, pp. 259–60; Senator Paul Simon from Frank J. Williams, Lincolniana in 1988, paragraph 13 of “Editorials,”
http://jala.press.uiuc.edm/10/williams.htm
/; TR from Stephen Jay Gould,
Bully for Brontosaurus
, pp. 209–10; President Grover Cleveland to five-year-old FDR from James Humes,
Which President Killed a Man?
p. 214; FDR career goals and objectives from Wesley O. Hagood,
Presidential Sex
, p. 63; Joe Kennedy from Robert Dallek, “Lyndon Johnson and the 1960 Election,” in Brian Lamb, ed.,
Booknotes: Stories from American History
, p. 335; John C. Calhoun from Steve Tally,
Bland Ambition
, p. 55; Joseph Lane from William Lee Miller,
Lincoln’s Virtues
, pp. 465–67.

Kenneth C. Davis,
Don’t Know Much About History
, pp. 420–21; Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.,
The Cycles of American History
, pp. 317–20.

Washington from Robert Leckie,
The Wars of America
, vol. I, pp. 111–12; Lincoln from Stephen B. Oates,
Abraham Lincoln
, pp. 75–76, David Herbert Donald,
Lincoln
, p. 256, and William Lee Miller,
Lincoln’s Virtues
, p. 394.

David Herbert Donald,
Lincoln
, p. 85; Stephen Hess, “Big Bill Taft,” in American Heritage Press,
A Sense of History
, pp. 563, 574; Carl S. Anthony,
Nellie Taft
, p. 148.

William Lee Miller,
Lincoln’s Virtues
, pp. 153–60, 316, 319; David Herbert Donald,
Lincoln
, p. 113.

1860 election statistics from Stephen B. Oates,
With Malice Toward None
, p. 190; discussion of election results from Emerson David Fite,
The Presidential Campaign of 1860
, p. 233; “A fluke” from Jay Winik,
April 1865
, p. 241; Lincoln quote from David Herbert Donald,
Lincoln
, p. 529; McPherson quote from “American Victory, American Defeat” in Gabor S. Boritt, ed.,
Why the Confederacy Lost
, p. 39; “54 percent not voting” from David Herbert Donald in Brian Lamb,
Booknotes: Life Stories
, p. 98; valet’s quote on Hughes from Herman D. Hover,
Fourteen Presidents before Washington
, p. 191; see Merlo J. Pusey,
Charles Evans Hughes;
Woodrow Wilson medical cover-up from David Fromkin,
In the Time of the Americans
, p. 247; Richard Nixon presidential debate from Frank Stanton, “The First Debate Over Presidential Debates,”
Newsweek
, Oct. 2, 2000.

Richard Severo and Lewis Milford,
The Wages of War
, pp. 129, 143, 146–48; Gen. George Thomas from Tom Wheeler,
Mr. Lincoln’s T-Mails
, p. 168.

Kenneth J. Ackerman,
Dark Horse
, pp. 405, 429.

New York Times
, July 5, 1960, p. 20; Sorenson comment from Gerald Gardner,
All the President’s Wits
, p. 214; Breckenridge from Steve Tally,
Bland Ambition
, pp. 107–14; Mansfield comment from Harvey C. Mansfield, “Tocqueville’s Democracy in America,” in Brian Lamb, ed.,
Booknotes: Stories from American History
, p. 67.

Barbara Tuchman,
Practicing History
, pp. 106, 117.

Merlo J. Pusey,
Charles Evans Hughes
, vol. I, pp. 361–62; Truman from Joseph C. Goulden,
The Best Years: 1945–1950
, pp. 231–32.

Theodore Roosevelt’s death from David Fromkin,
In the Time of the Americans
, p. 226.

Richard J. Barnet,
The Rockets’ Red Glare
, p. 318; Hillary Clinton from Haynes Johnson and David S. Broder,
The System
, p. 19.

Wesley O. Hagood,
Presidential Sex
, pp. 139, 143.

Steve Tally,
Bland Ambition
, pp. 341, 372–73.

David Herbert Donald,
Lincoln
, p. 89; Reagan from
Forbes
, Nov. 11, 1991, pp. 201–2, 210.

Washington watching Bush on TV cartoon by Jeff MacNelly, cover illustration, Eileen Shields-West,
The World Almanac of Presidential Campaigns;
Garfield’s Pythagorean theorem from John Steele Gordon,
The Scarlet Woman of Wall Street
, p. 269; Herbert Hoover from John L. Moore,
Speaking of Washington
, p. 109; FDR from John Lukacs,
Outgrowing Democracy
, p. 41; Clinton from
People
magazine, Sept. 13, 1993, p. 51; Grant from Gene Smith,
Lee and Grant
, p. 96; Truman and Harding from Harold Evans,
The American Century
, pp. 374, 189; Lincoln’s father from Stephen B. Oates,
Abraham Lincoln
, p. 36; Washington’s father from Richard Norton Smith, “George Washington,” in Brian Lamb,
Booknotes: Life Stories
, p. 3; FDR’s night alone from Blanche Wiesen Cook,
Eleanor Roosevelt, vol I: 1884–1933
, pp. 478–80, and Doris Faber,
The Life of Lorena Hickok
, pp. 116–17, 156, 160; FDR “easy!” from Paul F. Boller Jr.,
Presidential Anecdotes
, p. 266; Jefferson’s modesty from Thomas K. McCraw,
The American Scholar
, Winter 1994, p. 31, and Dumas Malone,
Jefferson and His Time
, vol. VI,
The Sage of Monticello
, p. 499; John Quincy Adams from David McCullough,
Brave Companions
, p. 227; Jefferson on Washington, and TR’s relinquishing control to Taft from Stephen Skowronek,
The Politics Presidents Make
, pp. 65, 253; historian quote on statesmanship by John Freeman Clarke in John Lukacs,
American Heritage
, Feb.–March 1992, p. 66; Lowndes description from Harriet H. Ravenel,
Life and Times of William Lowndes of South Carolina, 1782–1822
, p. 240; Lincoln quote on God from James C. Humes,
Instant Eloquence
, p. 220; Harry Truman quote on polls from Robert H. Ferrell, ed.,
Off the Record: The Private Papers of Harry S Truman
, p. 310; Orson Welles and FDR from Richard J. Barnet,
The Rockets’ Red Glare
, p. 218; John Adams on George Washington from David McCullough,
1776
, p. 146; Lincoln’s cabinet (“They will eat you up”) from Jay Monaghan,
Abraham Lincoln Deals with Foreign Affairs
, p. 14; Lincoln and Seward from Emerson David Fite,
The Presidential Campaign of 1860
, p. 214, and Stephen B. Oates,
With Malice Toward None
, p. 234; Lincoln and Chase from Peter Huber, “Kate Chase Tries to Help Her Father Become President,”
Old News
, March 1992, pp. 10–12; Washington on hiring friend versus adversary from Alfred Steinberg,
The First Ten
, p. 23; James A. Garfield from Kenneth D. Ackerman,
Dark Horse
, pp. 236–37; Truman on Madison from Ralph Keyes,
The Wit and Wisdom of Harry Truman
, p. 14; Lincoln’s “ayes” from John L. Moore,
Speaking of Washington
, p. 68; TR on Jefferson as the worst president, from Theodore Roosevelt,
The Naval War of 1812
, p. 405; Woodrow Wilson from Alan Wolfe,
Return to Greatness
, p. 22.