Peter Cooper (1791-1883) was more than an industrialist-he was the engine of the American century. Born into poverty, self-educated, and relentlessly inventive, Cooper built the Tom Thumb, the first American-made locomotive, launching the nation's rail revolution. He mastered the fabrication of iron, literally laying the structural groundwork for modern New York City. He was the ultimate self-made man who used his fortune to change the American dream. But Cooper's ultimate masterpiece was the Cooper Union, a revolutionary free institution dedicated to educating the working class, based on the radical belief that "knowledge must be free." From the gritty factory floor to a presidential bid with the Greenback Party, this biography explores the life of a pragmatic visionary who defined the Gilded Age, not by the wealth he accumulated, but by the democracy, opportunity, and education he fought to secure for every citizen. Approx.166 pages, 29200 word count