Author: Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe
Published: September 19, 2023 by Harper
Format: 336 pages, Hardcover
Genre: Biography
First Sentence: Introduction. My first thought when I met Brooke Astor was, Who is this very small lady in a big fur coat?
Blurb: The story of the Astors is a quintessentially American story—of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention.
From 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society.
The family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New York society and inserted themselves into political and cultural life, but also suffered the most famous loss on the Titanic, one of many shocking and unexpected twists in the family’s story.
In this unconventional, page-turning historical biography, featuring black-and-white and color photographs, #1 New York Times bestselling authors Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors and explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America—offering a window onto the making of America itself. (GoodReads)
My Opinion: Fighting over who will be called Mrs. Astor, seemed ridiculous, but I guess that is what people, who have nothing else to offer, find important.
I can’t say that the book was bad, but I can say that the Astor’s were tedious. Rags to riches, to rags. Isn’t this the same story told on repeat with generational wealth? Be it three generations or six, they all seem to end up back in the same place with only pettiness in the middle.
The authors, Cooper and Howe, did seem to struggle with enough interesting facts and there did seem to be a bit of repetition, but then again, the Astor’s were not unique or interesting.
Since this writing team has found its niche, I wonder which Gilded Age family will be next.
Blurb: The story of the Astors is a quintessentially American story—of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention.
From 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society.
The family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New York society and inserted themselves into political and cultural life, but also suffered the most famous loss on the Titanic, one of many shocking and unexpected twists in the family’s story.
In this unconventional, page-turning historical biography, featuring black-and-white and color photographs, #1 New York Times bestselling authors Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors and explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America—offering a window onto the making of America itself. (GoodReads)
My Opinion: Fighting over who will be called Mrs. Astor, seemed ridiculous, but I guess that is what people, who have nothing else to offer, find important.
I can’t say that the book was bad, but I can say that the Astor’s were tedious. Rags to riches, to rags. Isn’t this the same story told on repeat with generational wealth? Be it three generations or six, they all seem to end up back in the same place with only pettiness in the middle.
The authors, Cooper and Howe, did seem to struggle with enough interesting facts and there did seem to be a bit of repetition, but then again, the Astor’s were not unique or interesting.
Since this writing team has found its niche, I wonder which Gilded Age family will be next.
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