In 2008, I had the opportunity to hear historian T. J. Stiles speak at the Business History Conference in
Sacramento. Stiles is a historian who decided to become a popular writer rather than try for a post in a university. He has had a very successful career researching and writing books that combine scholarly rigour with popular appeal.
Stiles has won the 2009 National Book Award for non-fiction for his exhaustively researched biography, The First Tycoon: The Epic Life of Cornelius Vanderbilt (Alfred A. Knopf). I recently read and enjoyed this book. In fact, I am planning to assign it to my students when I teach a course on North American business history.
Hear Stiles speak about his biography of Vanderbilt here:
You can see Stiles talking about his earlier biography of Jesse James.
The Past Speaks 