In a hurry: Georges Doriot in 1931 on the luxury liner Ile de France, 10 years after his arrival in the United States from France. Credit: Bettmann/Corbis

Although it's a popular story, it is untrue that President George W. Bush once said, "The problem with the French is that they have no word for entrepreneur." Still, a common prejudice in Anglophone nations holds that the French are less entrepreneuri­al than we. Creative Capital: Georges Doriot and the Birth of Venture Capital--a biography of the French-born Harvard Business School professor who practically created modern venture capitalism--is a reproach to that assumption.

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