When Money Grew on Trees: A. B. Hammond and the Age of the Timber BaronBorn in the timber colony of New Brunswick, Maine, in 1848, Andrew Benoni Hammond got off to an inauspicious start as a teenage lumberjack. By his death in 1934, Hammond had built an empire of wood that stretched from Puget Sound to Arizona—and in the process had reshaped the American West and the nation’s way of doing business. When Money Grew on Trees follows Hammond from the rough-and-tumble world of mid-nineteenth-century New Brunswick to frontier Montana and the forests of Northern California—from lowly lumberjack to unrivaled timber baron. Although he began his career as a pioneer entrepreneur, Hammond, unlike many of his associates, successfully negotiated the transition to corporate businessman. Against the backdrop of western expansion and nation-building, his life dramatically demonstrates how individuals—more than the impersonal forces of political economy—shaped capitalism in this country, and in doing so, transformed the forests of the West from functioning natural ecosystems into industrial landscapes. In revealing Hammond’s instrumental role in converting the nation’s public domain into private wealth, historian Greg Gordon also shows how the struggle over natural resources gave rise to the two most pervasive forces in modern American life: the federal government and the modern corporation. Combining environmental, labor, and business history with biography, When Money Grew on Trees challenges the conventional view that the development and exploitation of the western United States was dictated from the East Coast. The West, Gordon suggests, was perfectly capable of exploiting itself, and in his book we see how Hammond and other regional entrepreneurs dammed rivers, logged forests, and leveled mountains in just a few decades. Hammond and his like also built cities, towns, and a vast transportation network of steamships and railroads to export natural resources and import manufactured goods. In short, they established much of the modern American state and economy. |
What people are saying - Write a review
Reviews aren't verified, but Google checks for and removes fake content when it's identified
LibraryThing Review
User Review - Shrike58 - LibraryThingWhile not the most entertaining book that I've ever picked up I did get what I wanted out of this history in terms of dealing with how the lumber resources of the U.S. public domain were abused by the ... Read full review
LibraryThing Review
User Review - gregdehler - LibraryThingA solid account of Andrew Hammond, a western timber baron in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Hammond ruthlessly exploited natural resources to enrich himself. He violated the law (several ... Read full review
Other editions - View all
When Money Grew on Trees: A. B. Hammond and the Age of the Timber Baron Greg Gordon Limited preview - 2014 |
When Money Grew on Trees: A. B. Hammond and the Age of the Timber Baron Greg Gordon No preview available - 2023 |
When Money Grew on Trees: A. B. Hammond and the Age of the Timber Baron Greg Gordon No preview available - 2014 |
Common terms and phrases
acres allowed American Andrew andthe Association Astoria bank became began believed Bonner Brunswick building California camps capital Carson century claims Coast Collections construction continued contract corporate County Daly Despite economic Eureka federal files fire forests Francisco Furthermore George Hammond Hammond Lumber Hauser Helena History Humboldt hundred Huntington increased Indians industry inthe John June labor land largest later logging Lumber Company lumber industry lumbermen McLeod mill million mining Missoula Missoulian Montana natural nearly needed Northern Pacific Northwest noted Office ofthe onthe operations Oregon organized political practices president production profits Progressive purchase quote railroad received redwood region remained Report River Samoa Senator ships Southern Sparks steamboat strike supply thousand timber timberlands tothe town trade trees turned union University Valley West workers
Bibliographic information
| Title | When Money Grew on Trees: A. B. Hammond and the Age of the Timber Baron |
| Author | Greg Gordon |
| Publisher | University of Oklahoma Press, 2014 |
| ISBN | 0806145471, 9780806145471 |
| Length | 496 pages |
| Subjects | › › › Biography & Autobiography / Business Business & Economics / Industries / Agribusiness History / United States / State & Local / Pacific Northwest (OR, WA) Nature / Natural Resources Nature / Plants / Trees Technology & Engineering / Agriculture / Forestry |
| Export Citation | BiBTeX EndNote RefMan |