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Commodore: The Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (review)

attention to the opportunities presented by incorporation, and to the men whose lives and careers were improved by their corporate interactions. Economic development is not necessarily a negative phenomenon. Founding Corporate Power faces the challenge inherent in a case study, that of proving the subject unique yet sufficiently representative. The book’s specific difficulty is with the assertion that a new economic elite in Philadelphia sought to regain the level of social control they held, as political elites, prior to the Revolution. Schocket’s argument is confused because membership in these groups was neither static nor completely fluid. Philadelphia’s elite were not the vanguard of independence, at least not to the extent of commercial leaders in Boston and New York, and post-Revolution politicians looked increasingly westward. If the changing composition of the political elite was such an important part of Philadelphia’s enthusiasm for incorporation, then conclusions about the corporation as a method for social control may be extended only questionably to the entire nation, and would not apply to the South. This book places incorporation within the creation of new practices and institutions that developed through Revolutionary ideology, and puts the corporation within a wider context of American history, distinct from the rise of big business. The conclusion suggests this period offers insight into the often contentious relationship between government and business in America. Founding Corporate Power presents a complicated and intellectually stimulating picture of the early national economy.