Description
A NPR Best Book of the YearThe number one?New York Times?bestselling authors of?Vanderbilt?return with another?riveting history of?a legendary American family, the?Astors, and how they built and lavished their fortune. 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.
Binding: Paperback / softback
Binding: Paperback / softback