Legendary muckraker Gustavus Meyers’ first of three volumes in his massive account of the origins of certain American oligarchs.

History of the Great American Fortunes, Volume One by Gustavus Myers. Charles H. Kerr Co-Operative, Chicago. 1909.

Contents: Preface, PART I CONDITIONS IN COLONIAL AND SETTLEMENT TIMES) The Great Proprietary Estates, The Sway of the Landgraves, The Rise of the Trading Class, The Shipping Fortunes, The Shippers and Their Times, Girard – The Richest of the Shippers, PART II THE GREAT LAND FORTUNES) The Origin of Huge City Estates, The Inception of the Astor Fortune, The Growth of the Astor Fortune, The Ramifications of the Astor Fortune, The Momentum of the Astor Fortune, The Propulsion of the Astor Fortune, The Climax of the Astor Fortune, Other Land Fortunes Considered, The Field Fortune in Extenso, Further Vistas of the Field Fortune. 296 pages.

The Charles H Kerr publishing house was responsible for some of the earliest translations and editions of Marx, Engels, and other leaders of the socialist movement in the United States. Publisher of the Socialist Party aligned International Socialist Review, the Charles H Kerr Co. was an exponent of the Party’s left wing and the most important left publisher of the pre-Communist US workers movement. It remains a left wing publisher today.

PDF of original book: https://archive.org/download/historyofgreatam01myer/historyofgreatam01myer.pdf