Pulled the bookmark
Did not finish

I passed this lovely hardback edition to a friend that I knew would appreciate it.

I really wanted to read this book because the topic of the west intrigues me. But I have started it twice and can't get very far. I am sure that someone VERY interested in early railroads would find this fascinating but there is way too much detail for me to get through. I am keeping it on my bedside so I can hopefully get further in to it, but not now. ( )

I put WAY too much expectation into what I thought a different (read: BETTER) example of a titan, philanthropist, community leader could be. Dan Murphy's life was interesting and impressive but it wasn't different enough from the other titans of industry of his age, or really any other. Admittedly, my expectations, as I continue to learn, are unrealistic. ( )

It's been said that there are only two kinds of biographies: those which laud the subject, and those which excoriate it. This biography is in the former category, although not in a typical fashion. A lot of laudatory biographies depict their subjects as towering deities, but this one does not. It may be a side effect of Dan Murphy's near-compulsive desire for privacy, but his words are almost never quoted and his reactions almost never directly portrayed. They receive occasional mentions, but not on every page. The other people in his life - his wife, adopted daughter, business partners, various other associates and friends - receive at least as much attention as he does.

At the same time, it's remarkable how Murphy's influence touched everything from the 1893 Chicago World's Fair to Katy Perry at only one or two degrees of remove. It's regrettable but also rather unsurprising (considering his wealth and privilege in the world of his day) that Murphy agreed with Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini in Mussolini's dislike of labor unions.

The author's writing shows that he is an enthusiast for California and Southwestern history, and this book is written for an audience with similar interests. If you are not interested in the Southwest and California of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, or the interaction between American Catholics and the Vatican in the 1920s, you may struggle to maintain interest in this book.

As a lapsed Catholic, I found the parts about Murphy's interaction with the Vatican and Italian politics to be some of the most interesting in the book. A close second were his interactions with the Mojave and other Native peoples - especially how Murphy was willing to accommodate certain local Native populations and their needs.

That said, mention needs to be made of how the book portrays Native people. Despite the fact that the author is writing about one of the big white capitalists of the old Southwest, the different Native people mentioned in the book generally act in understandable ways. I can't tell if the broken English in the book is accurate to what was said at the time for various reasons, but the author appears to be making a good faith effort to accurately represent who said what and for what reasons.

The book's main drawback (which is more a function of who Murphy himself was or wasn't than anything to do with this author) is that Murphy was not a world-bestriding colossus of his age. If you aren't interested in the history of California, the 19th-century Southwest, railroads, the early oil industry in the West, or rich American Catholics involving themselves with Italy, you are going to have a hard time enjoying this book. If you are into any of those things, though, you will find something interesting here.

Also, John Goodman could totally have played this guy in a movie at one point in his life. ( )

A previous reviewer summarized the book well: this is a massively detailed look at a relatively unknown figure in the history of the American West. For me, it's well-researched but too detailed, and the details impeded the narrative. I wish that Joseph Francis Ryan focused more on Dan Murphy, the person, and less on the railroad, his business, and his investments. I struggled to keep it all straight and become engrossed in the story. ( )