| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.2

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| Book Review | The Journal of American History, 94.2 | The History Cooperative

Book Review

Mellon: An American Life. By David Cannadine. (New York: Knopf, 2006. xvi, 779 pp. $35.00, ISBN 0-679-45032-7.)
Histories of interwar America often portray Andrew Mellon as the quintessential old guard Republican. There are good reasons for this, but as David Cannadine explains in this splendid biography, Mellon was a talented businessman and banker who became a successful treasury secretary and a collector of some of the world's finest paintings. His paintings became part of his founding gift to the National Gallery of Art, an institution that exists because of Mellon's almost single- handed commitment to its founding.	1
Andrew Mellon and his brother, Richard, built on the success of their father to build not only Pittsburgh's largest bank but also a diversified business empire that included oil refining (Gulf), aluminum reduction (Alcoa), coal, steel, and streetcar franchises. They mastered what became known as the "Mellon System," which meant identifying and financing new industries, achieving substantial efficiencies through vertical integration, and finding men like themselves to serve as partners and managers (p. 89).	. . .

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