Hidden Treasures; Or, Why Some Succeed While Others Fail

What separates the men who build empires from those who stay stuck? Harry A. Lewis answers withProfiles in fortitude: Cornelius Vanderbilt, who rose from a Staten Island boatman to railroad baron; Nathan Rothschild, who turned financial acumen into dynastic wealth; Ulysses Grant, who went from tanner's apprentice to commanding the Union Army to the White House. These aren't fairy tales of luck - Lewis argues they're case studies in determination, strategic thinking, and the refusal to accept defeat. Written in 1952 but rooted in Victorian self-help philosophy, the book insists that character, not circumstance, determines outcomes. Some portraits feel genuinely inspiring; others reveal the harder edges of Gilded Age ambition. Whether you see it as a roadmap to success or a period artifact celebrating ruthless accumulation, it captures something enduring about the American belief that your beginning doesn't have to dictate your ending.