Barons of the Sea: And Their Race to Build the World's Fastest

Barons of the Sea: And Their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship

â€œA fascinating, fast-paced historyâ€¦full of remarkable characters and incredible storiesâ€ about the nineteenth-century American dynasties who battled for dominance of the tea and opium trades (Nathaniel Philbrick, National Book Award-winning author of In the Heart of the Sea).

There was a time, back when the United States was young and the robber barons were just starting to come into their own, when fortunes were made and lost importing luxury goods from China. It was a secretive, glamorous, often brutal businessâ€”one where teas and silks and porcelain were purchased with profits from the opium trade. But the journey by sea to New York from Canton could take six agonizing months, and so the most pressing technological challenge of the day became ensuring oneâ€™s goods arrived first to market, so they might fetch the highest price.

â€œWith the verse of a natural dramatistâ€ (The Christian Science Monitor), Steven Ujifusa tells the story of a handful of cutthroat competitors who raced to build the fastest, finest, most profitable clipper ships to carry their precious cargo to American shores. They were visionary, eccentric shipbuilders, debonair captains, and socially ambitious merchants with names like Forbes and Delanoâ€”men whose business interests took them from the cloistered confines of Chinaâ€™s expatriate communities to the sin city decadence of Gold Rush-era San Francisco, and from the teeming hubbub of East Bostonâ€™s shipyards and to the lavish sitting rooms of New Yorkâ€™s Hudson Valley estates.

Elegantly written and meticulously researched, Barons of the Sea is a riveting tale of innovation and ingenuity that â€œtakes the reader on a rare and intoxicating journey back in timeâ€ (Candice Millard, bestselling author of Hero of the Empire), drawing back the curtain on the making of some of the nationâ€™s greatest fortunes, and the rise and fall of an all-American industry as sordid as it was genteel.
Country USA
Brand Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer Simon & Schuster
Binding Hardcover
ItemPartNumber 1476745978SRQ
ReleaseDate 2018-07-17
UnitCount 1
EANs 9781476745978

Country	USA
Brand	Simon & Schuster
Manufacturer	Simon & Schuster
Binding	Hardcover
ItemPartNumber	1476745978SRQ
ReleaseDate	2018-07-17
UnitCount	1
EANs	9781476745978

Barons of the Sea: And Their Race to Build the World's Fastest Clipper Ship

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