Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynastyby Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe
Harper, 2021. 317 pages. Nonfiction/Biography
When eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father's small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and a pathological desire for money, build two empires
—one in shipping and another in railroads
—that would make him the richest man in America. By 2018, when the last Vanderbilt was forced out of The Breakers
—the seventy-room summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island
—the family would have been unrecognizable to the tycoon who started it all. Now, the Commodore's great-great-great-grandson Anderson Cooper joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their outsized influence.
I don't usually read books covering the lifestyles of the rich and famous, but this book quickly grabbed my attention. Along with learning about a family living a lifestyle I can't personally imagine, this book covers a really interesting swath of New York City's history. The Vanderbilts were key players during the the Gilded Age, the Suffrage Movement, and so much more. Each chapter covers an interesting moment in the life of a different family member, which means there's something that will appeal to many different types of readers and history lovers. Listening to this book gives an extra bonus, since it's read by Anderson Cooper, who is reading about his own distant relations.
If you like Vanderbilt you might also like:
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Documents the story of the Gilded Age mansion Biltmore, tracing George Vanderbilt's construction of his European-style estate and the efforts of his bride, Edith Stuyvesant Dresser, to become its protector in the face of changing fortunes and times.
by William J. Mann
Harper, 2016. 609 pages. Nonfiction/Biography
A provocative biography of the Roosevelt family draws on family secrets and complex rivalries to argue that the Roosevelts' rise to power was driven by a series of inside competitions that were witnessed firsthand by an increasingly begrudging Eleanor Roosevelt.
by Therese Fowler
St. Martin's Press, 2018. 392 pages. Historical Fiction
Alva Smith, her southern family destitute after the Civil War, married into one of America's great Gilded Age dynasties: the newly wealthy but socially shunned Vanderbilts. Ignored by New York's old-money circles and determined to win respect, she designed and built 9 mansions, hosted grand balls, and arranged for her daughter to marry a duke. But Alva also defied convention for women of her time, asserting power within her marriage and becoming a leader in the women's suffrage movement.
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