Of all the figures in American history, none is in direr need of rehabilitation than Andrew William Mellon. Mellon the financier created an empire of coal and steel that fueled modern industry. Mellon the art collector gave the country its National Gallery. Mellon the Treasury Secretary outclassed all predecessors but Alexander Hamilton, spending a full decade in the job and presiding over stupendous economic progress. Mellon was the Alan Greenspan of his time, a man of whom it was said that “three presidents served under him.”