Mellon: An American Life by David CannadineMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Knowing next to nothing about Mellon before reading this, I found this book pretty interesting. It also seemed to include a history of Pittsburgh and Western Pennsylvania's Scotch-Irish roots (more so than Nasaw's Carnegie biography), which was a big part of the Mellon's life.
Actually it seems that most of Andrew Mellon's successful endeavors were by taking his father's advice, so I'd be curious to read "Thomas Mellon and his Times". It seems that when he veered from this advice (as with his marriage) is when he got into trouble.
It was also interesting to read about Mellon's later political life, and see some of FDR's more 'gangster' side in dealing with the rich industrialists.
I didn't know he had founded Alcoa, or that he had established the National Gallery of Art in DC.
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