Description
Book SynopsisIn this landmark biography, Canter Brown Jr. makes evident the extent of Henry Bradley Plant's influences throughout North, Central, and South America as well as his role in the emergence of integrated transportation and a national tourism system. Brown brings this important but understudied figure in American history to the foreground.
Trade ReviewHenry Bradley Plant explores in enlightening and engaging detail its protagonist's complex blend of driving work ethic, relentless ambition, shameless networking, repeated good luck, and well-timed bribery and corporate scheming, which combined to transform the poor, Connecticut widow's son into a rich transportation titan with international reach and the trust of presidents. The author effectively mines diplomatic, borderlands, business, transportation, communications and even religious history and developments throughout Plant's long life across most of the nineteenth century to tell the subject's story and validate his importance." - Daniel R. Weinfeld, author of
The Jackson County War: Reconstruction and Resistance in Post-Civil War FloridaTable of Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Introduction
- 1. Formative Years: 1819 to 1834
- 2. New Haven: 1834 to 1844
- 3. Recovery: 1844 to 1854
- 4. Southern Ways: 1854 to 1859
- 5. Unwanted Conflict: 1859 to 1863
- 6. A Work of Reconstruction: 1863 to 1868
- 7. Flush Times: 1868 to 1873
- 8. The Panic: 1873 to 1878
- 9. Florida and the Pearl of the Antilles: 1878 to 1882
- 10. Tampa: 1882 to 1886
- 11. Transportation and Tourism: 1886 to 1889
- 12. Unanticipated Outcomes: 1889 to 1893
- 13. In the Midst of Calamity: 1893 to 1896
- 14. War and Peace: 1896 to 1899
- Afterword: The Ephemeral Nature of Legacies
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
