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Books : Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams |
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Books : Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams |
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Dewey Decimal Number: 338.7664153092 EAN: 9780743264105 ISBN: 074326410X Label: Simon & Schuster Manufacturer: Simon & Schuster Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 320 Publication Date: January 09, 2007 Publisher: Simon & Schuster Sales Rank: 202862 Studio: Simon & Schuster Editorial Review: Hershey, the son of a minister's daughter and an irresponsible father who deserted the family, began his career inauspiciously when the two candy shops he opened both went bankrupt. Undeterred, he started the Lancaster Caramel Company, which brought him success at last. Eventually he sold his caramel operation and went on to perfect the production process of chocolate to create a stable, consistent bar with a long shelf life...and an American icon was born. Hershey was more than a successful businessman -- he was a progressive thinker who believed in capitalism as a means to higher goals. He built the world's largest chocolate factory and a utopian village for his workers on a large tract of land in rural Pennsylvania, and used his own fortune to keep his workers employed during the Great Depression. In addition, he secretly willed his fortune to a boys' school and orphanage, both of which now control a vast endowment. Extensively researched and vividly written, Hershey is the fascinating story of this uniquely American visionary. Related Items:
Average Rating:
 Rating:  - The Great American Chocolate BookThe only thing I really knew before reading this book is that Hershey chocolate has been around a long time and there is a town themed after it somewhere in Pennsylvania near Amish country. Boy was I undereducated in this realm. Milton S. Hershey or M.S. as he was later known was the epitomy and poster-boy for American capitalism at it's grandest hour. Starting off as an apprentice to a Confectioner he was able to start learning the tricks of the trade. He found his life's calling and tried his hand at a few candy businesses primarily focusing on caramel chews. At this time in America, chocolate was not like the chocolate we have today (which is due almost entirely to M.S.) it was a rough texture that wasn't that tasty. The only people in the world that understood how and mastered the making of milk chocolate at the time was the Swiss and they guarded their secret with a passion. Eventually, after a few failed attempts at businesses in both Philadelphia and New York, he returned to his home to Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It was then that he started experimenting with trying to master milk chocolate. In fact after he had begun construction on his new factory in what would be known as the Town of Hershey, he still had not gotten it right, he was experimenting with a chemist up until the time the factory was completed when he got it right. The book is wonderfully written, It makes you really take a step back and think about not only the history of Hershey, but America itself. A time when companies and products were an explosion onto the American scene more than any other time in our Country's history. The book also takes a very intricate look at Hershey and his drive to support the Orphans that were taken in by Hershey's Industrial School, that, on paper own the Hershey company which has been a major issue over the years. I was so enthralled by this book that I am going to be picking up another book on the same industry called "The Emperor's of Chocolate" about the wars between Hershey and the Mars Candy Company. If you are looking for a great read and knowledge of corporate American history this is a wonderful book to read. Rating: - Hershey:, the legend and the manMichael D'Antonio has given us a serious biography of a complicated, but highly admirable, man. A "chocolate king" who founded a town and created and endowed schools and home for orphans is not a figure to be treated lightly, and D'Antonio does not fail. While there is no question that D'Antonio likes his subject, Hershey is not given a free pass. His enormous philanthropy is described right alongside irrational temper tantrums and firings. Spying on worker's drinking habits is described alongside his own gambling habits. The rise of the Hersey empire, and the town he founded, is described in great detail. The book opens with the drama of a challenge to the Trust of his school for orphans and the reality of business in this day and age. "What would Milton do?" is the question. What the book tells us is that it is by no means certain what Milton would do. He had contemplated selling his empire at more than one point, ensuring the resources for the continued care of the orphans in his charge. We see the rise and life of the Hershey empire, and Milton's relationships with others. The possibility of the true nature of his wife's illness is mentioned and described. Some have been offended by this, I'd suggest they get over it. It has no bearing on what type of person she was, or how much he loved her. We see the evolution of the business, the international interests, the town and school. It is a satisfying read. The only additional material I would have liked is some more description of Hershey's interactions with some of the other business and political leaders of the day. We are told of a feud with Wrigley, and the suspicion that Wrigley had cheated in gambling, but little else. We know of TR's trust busting, and that Hershey was considered to be quite apart from the Robber Barons of the day. Did TR and Hershey ever interact beyond the one or two mentioned invitations? If so, how? This historical information may not exist in the archives, but was the only gap I felt while reading. Rating:  - As Good as Chocolate"This book is almost as good as the chocolate bar. This biography of Milton S. Hershey and the chocolate company shows how hard work, ingenuity, and just plain luck produced the world's largest chocolate factory. The only thing that would have made this book better would have been a free sample of the product." Rating: - A truly sweet biography of the chocolate kingMichael D' Antonio has written a wonderful biography of Milton S. Hershey, the man who became a multi-millionaire by making milk chocolate a five-cent treat in the United States. Very much to his credit, D' Antonio delivers a biography of a complex man from another era without super-imposing contemporary politically correct value judgments. D' Antonio deserves a gold star or two for that. Milton Hershey's life is not an easy one to document; he was not an overtly public man. Rather, he led two lives. The first as reservd tycoon in his native Pennsylvania locale, the other as a a sometimes free-spending bon vivant traveling the United States, Europe and Cuba. D' Antonio chronicles Hershey's beginnings with his stern, no-nonsense mother with her Mennonite background and Milton's dreamy, never successful father. Backed with the unwavering faith of his mother and aunt and funds from his extended family, Milton pursued a career in confectionary. One business failure followed another, but Milton's faith in himself never faltered. Then he discovered caramels - and became the caramel king. Working with clearly limited resources, D' Antonio weaves an interesting story of an interesting man that becomes still more interesting when Hershey sees that the caramel market is limited. He sells out and could have easily retired to a life of luxurious ease. He had surprised everyone and married Catherine Sweeney, some fifteen years younger, whose actual background remains a mystery. She may, according to some, have been a "working girl". Though rich, Hershey pursued the dream of creating an inexpensive milk chocolate candy - and through native ingenuity and peristence succeeded. He built a multi-million dollar business that at one time controlled more than 90% of the U.S. market. The story of Hershey is fascinating. He built a town, Hershey PA, incorporating his utopian beliefs - and it worked. He created a sugar empire in Cuba that almost bankrupted him. He set up a unique orphanage and then endowed it with all his wealth. He was a mercurial man who could fire long-time employees in a moment of pique. He overlooked the failings of favorites. But no one (except perhaps some left-wing academics) could call Hershey a bad man. Almost alone among the mega-rich of the era, Hershey was animated by a true humanism and D' Antonio fully describes this without turning Hershey into a saint. Hershey is an exceptional biography. It describes an American original, Milton S. Hershey, a self-made man who shared himself with his workers, his community and his nation. Quite a guy and he has found himself in the hands of a very competent biographer. Jerry
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