Throughout American history there has almost always been at least one central economic narrative that gave the ambitious or unsatisfied reason to pack up and seek their fortune elsewhere.
With lingering shots of rolling Nebraskan farmland intercut with Mr Buffett squinting 4 at dusty old company records, it is a fascinating look at an extraordinary fortune-builder and his methods.
The Grand Tourist was typically a young man with a thorough grounding in Greek and Latin literature as well as some leisure time, some means, and some interest in art.
Which is good news only if you like this summer's oil spill, mountaintop removal mining, catastrophic climate change and the ongoing transfer of wealth from the U.S. to oil-producing countries.
By contrast, the Carnegie Corporation explicitly set out to create a better world by giving away what remained of the great fortune of its industrialist founder, Andrew Carnegie.
If she hopes her new-found fortune will yield lasting feelings of fulfillment, she could do worse than read Happy Money by Elizabeth Dunn and Michael Norton.
Wealth is not merely the result of man's ability to think (as Ayn Rand famously believed). Rather, it is the ability to think combined with the courage and determination to persevere despite the odds.
Petrarch celebrated their greatness in conquering fortune and rising to the top. This was the biographical tradition which Niccolò Machiavelli turned on its head.