Thomas Kessner

In May 1927 an inexperienced and unassuming 25-year-old Air Mail pilot from rural Minnesota stunned the world by making the first nonstop transatlantic flight. A spectacular feat of individual daring and collective technological accomplishment, Charles Lindbergh's flight from New York to Paris ushered in America's age of commercial aviation. In this book, Kessner takes a fresh look at one of America's greatest moments, showing how new forms of mass media made Lindbergh into the most famous international celebrity of his time. But he also reveals that Lindbergh was closely allied with, and managed by, a group of powerful businessmen who sought to exploit aviation for mass transport and massive profits. This book is the first to fully explore Lindbergh's central role in promoting the airline industry-the rise of which has influenced everything from where we live to how we wage war and do business. 

Thomas Kessner tells the dramatic story of New York's transformation from port city to financial capital of the world in the course of a generation. No succeeding generation enjoyed the economic power, the open political atmosphere, and the shaping influence available to this group of capitalists," Kessner writes. During this period, money accumulated in New York, as a banking culture emerged, and ambitious men were drawn to the city to make enormous fortunes. Kessner's colorful, epic narrative profiles such figures as J. P. Morgan, Andrew Carnegie, and John D. Rockefeller, who forged a brave and ruthless new brand of corporate capitalism. In Capital City, Kessner describes the competitive climate that led to New York-rather than Boston, Philadelphia, or any other northern city—becoming the global financial center.