“Gustavus Swift achieved fame and fortune by refrigerating—and, in so doing, revolutionizing—the American meat supply. “He was not to change the world’s maps, nor make military history,” his eldest son, Louis, wrote in his biography of his father, The Yankee of the Yards, coauthored with journalist Arthur Van Vlissingen Jr. “Instead, he was the human instrument by which destiny transformed the world’s sources and supplies of an essential class of foodstuffs.” According to his son, Swift wasn’t driven by grand ambition or a desire to benefit mankind. Instead, his motivation sprang from a much less lofty place: a mania for saving money.”