AMERICAN DISRUPTOR
The Scandalous Life of Leland Stanford
Not just the amazingly untold story of one of America’s great robber barons, but of the building of the American West, and the consolidation of the United States of America.
American Disruptor is the untold story of Leland Stanford – from his birth in a backwoods bar to the founding of the world-class university that became and remains the nucleus of Silicon Valley. The life of this robber baron, politician, and historic influencer is the astonishing tale of how one supremely ambitious man became this country's original "disruptor" – reshaping industry and engineering one of the greatest raids on the public treasury for America’s transcontinental railroad, all while living more opulently than maharajas, kings, and emperors.
It is also the saga of how Stanford, once a serial failure, overcame all obstacles to become one of America’s most powerful and wealthiest men, using his high elective office to enrich himself before losing the one thing that mattered most to him – his only child and son. Scandal and intrigue would follow Stanford through his life, and even after his death, when his widow was murdered in a Honolulu hotel – a crime quickly covered up by the almost stillborn university she had saved. Richly detailed and deeply researched, American Disruptor restores Leland Stanford’s rightful place as a revolutionary force and architect of modern America.
“A rip-roaring read.” – William Powers, author of Hamlet’s Blackberry: Building a Good Life in the Digital Age.
“American Disruptor penetrates the thicket of hagiography surrounding Leland Stanford, the son of a farmer and innkeeper near Albany, revealing him to be a typical American success story: he blundered and swindled his way to wealth, propelling himself upward by the liberal use of other people’s bootstraps.” – New York Review of Books
“A wonderful read. Well written and extremely well documented.” – Bruce Cain, director of the Lane Center for the American West, Stanford University.
“Vivid prose and a strong narrative drive.” – MIT Press
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