Astor by Anderson Cooper

Join the discussion of Astor by Anderson Cooper, our Fact or Fiction Book Club selection for May. Pick up a copy at the Highland Branch.

Summary: "The story of the Astors is an 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. That the family suffered the most famous loss on the Titanic was only one of many shocking and unexpected twists in the family's story. Cooper and Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors. In exploring explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America, they offer a window onto the making of America itself."