Reviews

After two similar biographies, David L. Chandler's Henry Flagler ( LJ 8/86) and Sidney Walter Martin's Florida's Flagler (1949), not much more can be said about Flagler the man. Akin instead concentrates on Flagler's business practices, focusing not only on his involvement with Standard Oil but on the company itself. Akin reveals that a desire for immortality rather than greed motivated Flagler to open up Florida's east coast. However, Akin does not fully explore and develop the reasons for Flagler's change from the Standard Oil barracuda to Florida's paternalistic ``Uncle Henry.'' A welcome addition to late-19th-century business history; recommended for academic libraries. Susan Hamburger, Florida State Univ. Lib., Tallahassee

Akin, who teaches at Mississippi College, here presents a study of Henry M. Flager (1830-1913), an entrepreneur who had two significant careers. He was associated with John D. Rockefeller during the formation of Standard Oil; Flagler was instrumental in securing preferential railroad rates important in building Standard's near-monopoly. Akin is objective in dealing with this period, raising the question of what untrammeled competition might have meant to the oil industry. In the 1880s, Flagler became interested in Florida and over the next decades was responsible for developing St. Augustine and turning Palm Beach, Miami and Key West into tourist resorts. Scholarly and plodding, this portrait is not likely to interest general readers. Illustrations not seen by PW. (January)