A castle in the clouds
Subtitle: Tom Plant and the American dream
By: Barry H. Rodrigue
Publisher: Archipelago, Inc.
Published: 2014
Place of publication: Maine
Language: eng
Number of pages: 288
ISBN-13: 9780991542703
Subjects: Businessmen; Biography
Description: "The story of Tom Plant (1859-1941) gives us a gritty, real-life view of the American dream. Born into a poor French-Canadian family in Bath, Maine on the eve of the Civil War, he began his career as a boy laborer, cutting ice on the Kennebec River. Tom then became a union shoe maker in the "shoe capital of the world," in Massachusetts, financing his first workshop with a baseball wager. He went on to pioneer new trends in American business and to build the world's largest shoe factory. An inventor, his name became front-page news in the New York Times during a fight with the most notorious monopoly in the United States. A celebrated outdoorsman, he laid out a vast estate on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee, as well as a retirement home for workers in his hometown. An advocate of the progressive movement, Tom Plant spoke for a new, pragmatic America, one based on fairness in the workplace, conservation of nature, plural heritage, and global harmony. His denouement was as surprising as his triumph." --Publisher's description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 242-282) and index.
Table of contents: title: Prologue : identity, heritage & society; title: - Introduction; title: Family migrations; title: Family life  & early work; title: Rising captain of industry; title: Shoe machinery war : Saint George and the dragon; title: Transitions; title: Ideas of grandeur : the earl of Ossipee Park; title: Conclusion; title: Epilogue : a human face of capital.