Is Elon Musk the Greatest Industrialist in American History?

Michael Moritz says Elon Musk may well be the greatest industrialist in the history of America. He is a believer in the great person theory. Individuals, for good and for bad, have an enormous impact on what surrounds them. On the good side they persuade other people to do what had seemed impossible. He puts Elon Musk in that company with Lee Iacocca and Steve Jobs, and with figures in politics and on the battlefield. He also says some authoritarian leaders have cast black shadows over tens of millions of people, across decades and hundreds of years.

He knows Elon Musk is a controversial figure. He says he is looking through the lens of history and through an investor's lens, not joining that argument. What sets Musk apart, on Moritz's reading, is the scale of achievements across a variety of industries. Moritz uses the British word gobsmacked. He says he cannot understand how one person has been able to do it.