Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune

A NPR Best Book of the Year

The number one New York Times bestselling authors of Vanderbilt return with another riveting history of a legendary American dynasty, 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 and sweeping family saga, 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.

This definitive work of American history reveals the ambition, glamour, and shocking betrayals of a family that shaped a nation:

• Gilded Age New York: Trace the family’s rise from a beaver trapping empire to their undisputed reign over New York's high society, setting the rules for a nation’s elite.
• Wealth and Power: Discover how a fortune built on fur and Manhattan real estate allowed the Astors to insert themselves into the fabric of American political and cultural life for generations.
• An American Dynasty: Follow the stunning ambition and shocking reinventions of the Astor family, from German immigrant John Jacob Astor in 1783 to the courtroom conviction of Brooke Astor’s son in 2009.
• Famous Tragedies: Experience the family's most public moments, including the most famous loss on the Titanic, one of many unexpected twists in this true story.