Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune

The title piqued my curiosity. It was slow going but as I learned more about this family I found this very interesting and it was a entertaining read. Anderson and Katherine did a good job in putting this all together and the research factor had to be quite challenging.

Really enjoyed the book. I felt though that too much time was spent on discussing the Astor Bar as a meeting place for gay men in the 40's and 50's. A couple of pages at most would do. Otherwise I learned a lot about the amassing of the fortune, its dwindling, the personalities involved and effect on American history.

I really enjoy reading a well written biography. One like this one that's well researched. It's the best way to learn history.

Yes, this is the Anderson Cooper that does the news on CNN. He is a Vanderbilt on his Mother’s side and is apparently interested in New York’s old wealth going back to the gilded age. Here he traces the roots of John Jacob Astor (who arrived in the city in 1783) and his beaver pelt fortune. Eventually, the family settled into Real Estate the crown jewel being the Waldorf-Astoria hotel.The book touches on many short biographical sketches from John Jacob IV who died on the Titanic to Brook Astor who gave most of the fortune away in the early 21st Century. This is after her son tried to steal her money. Throughout one thing is most clear, this was a dysfunctional family whose name became a brand meaning luxury. The authors do an interesting concussion listing many of the things, including the actress Mary Astor who became Astor’s in name only.This is not a serious book and many of the biographies could be expanded with more depth but I enjoyed the read and learned some things about New York history. I marginal recommendation if the topic is of interest.

I just finished reading Astor and absolutely loved it. The structure of the book, with details no one would ever guess about this famous family and their legacy, is captivating.So well researched, I was enthralled.The original John Jacob Astor was actually a horrible man, slaughtering beavers and other animals on his way across the continent after arriving penniless on our shores from Walldorf, Germany. His greed knew no end. While living extravagantly in a posh NYC neighborhood and buying up New York real estate, the tenements in which poor immigrants lived were on land owned by him. Rent was impossibly high and suffering was rampant. But the Astors cared little.Subsequent generations of Astors were eccentric, strange and very greedy.Too much money harbors great resentment on future generations. I have actually seen the effects in people I have known.

While I have read a lot of books about wealth history in the US, the Astor family was a story I knew very little about. Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe have written a book that is a worthy companion to their book about the Vanderbilt family (of which Cooper is a descendant). They were one of the wealthiest families in the country for over 200 years, but they were also one that we know less about than the more opulent Vanderbilt family. Their wealth, though just as substantial was older and more subdued, which explains why they are more historically obscure.I thought Astor was more skillfully written than Cooper and Howe’s Vanderbilt book. But I did feel that there were three chapters toward the end that weren’t really about the family, and I wasn’t convinced they belonged in this book.Despite that distraction, I still enjoyed this book.

Truly money isn’t everything. An enlightening insight into wealth. I often wondered why I never heard anything about the Astors. I learned money kills. Truly enlightening about New York City politics and how money never makes happiness.

The entire story is set before us - the good, the bad and the ugly. It’s a fascinating, yet often brutal tale of rags to riches to rags again. In the style of famous biographies like those of Thomas Edison or Benjamin Franklin, little is left to the imagination. Even the smallest details are shared in an attempt to get a closer look at the rich and famous that helped build New York City.