Hammer

This book gives a fascinating first hand report of what Russia was like immediately after the revolution. Armand Hammer lived the American dream of a poor immigrant family who made their way to America . From his youth, Hammer was imbued with a desire to do good for others. I had always supposed he founded the baking soda company of Arm and Hammer, but found out otherwise! He actually met with Lenin on his first trip to Russia on a medical mission to aid the starving peasants as the result of a terrible crop failure. Among other things he founded Occidental Oil and was a major contributor to various philanthropic projects. I would recommend this book to anyone interested in the history of the 20th century.

I enjoy reading autobiographies and this is one of the finest books I have ever read. It starts way back in the 1920's and describes his entrepreneurship in Lenin's Russia. A fascinating and enjoyable book. But - its positively huge in size and should take a reasonably busy person weeks to finish. I had read it years ago when I borrowed it from a library but wanted my own copy. I must admit I did not finish reading it the second time but one can pick it up and read it from anywhere and enjoy it.

If you like biographies of people whose lives seem like a Hollywood script you will love this book. Hammer was friends with the Russian Communist leadership while being one of the most brazen in your face Capitalists on the planet. The story of how he accumulated his vast wealth and enormous power is a great read and at an age when most people think about retiring he builds Occidental Petroleum. Hammer is both ruthless and generous. A fascinating story.

I read about 300 books a year. I say that because ever though it’s a old book, it is my all time number one. This was a replacement copy. You will never forget this read.

I had already read the book, but had lent it to a friend who lost it. So I wanted it for reference. Hammer had been my neighbor & had been in my house. I knew some interesting things about him that weren't in his book,

One of the best and most informative books concerning modern history of which Armand Hammer played a huge role. Enjoy❣️

long and lots of self serving info on this guy but I didn't glean one real insight. just a long boring treatise written by him about how great he was.

Good

Read this first before any other books on hammer