When the Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age

History is all in this book! I remember the term used by my mother when I was acting like a spoiledLittle girl!She would say “Listen here Miss Astor!”Moms are right! Read this book!

Interesting enough for the time period.

I wish I had paid more attention to the size of this book before purchasing. At 181 pages it is more term paper and less historic reference. The author rushes through as if time was of the essence and spends little or no time on details about the lives, homes, opulence or even the period of time we are supposed to be covering. To say that the Astor son was a collector of mass quantities of important books, coins, museum pieces and little more or describe one lavish dinner and no other left me wondering why anyone would attend. Yes, I know that 125 caterers ( If you can believe that many existed in early New York) were summoned to attend to the Astor parties but, come on, there has to be more than just a menu and tiny guest list. These were historic moments written about in International journals and newspapers. Did anyone sing? Entertain? Or were we to be left to imagine a hundred guests or more, without even knowing their dress, sitting around a table silently eating and drinking and then going on home? With so few photographs of the homes and interiors, I was left hoping that some of it would be described. Sorry, but I was not a fan and now I am on the lookout for another that will transport me back to that time and fill in my imagination with more details.

This book rounded up lots of bits and pieces I had heard about the Astors: Mrs. Astor and her Four Hundred, the Waldorf-Astoria, which Astor went down with the Titanic, Nancy Astor and where she fit in, the British properties: Cliveden and Hever Castle, the original John Jacob Astor and his source of wealth, the influence of the Astors on the hotel industry in New York City, and plenty of other items of information all placed in context. The family had some significant contributions to make in a number of fields and of course social history. A well written and organized read with some nice juicy personal tidbits and descriptions of each member of the dynasty.

This is a fun read about the historical Astor family. The buildings that were in New York before being demolished and the significance of the ones left today. Gilded Age show brought me to wanting to learn more about this money age!

This relatively slimmed down version of the Astor family's rise to financial prominence frustrated as well as informed me. As an outline it has enough information about the family and the lavish hotels they built to give a general reader the gist of their influence on the shape and lifestyle of New York high society in the turn of the 20th century period. The rivalry between the two wealthy cousins and their individual eccentricities are well covered. So much more could have been included on some of the more interesting episodes of the family history that were almost strangely glossed over by the author. I found myself looking up things to supplement my understanding frequently because the book left me hanging on some of the most intriguing aspects of this story.That said , I did enjoy the book and learned some interesting background on the Astors and the author stimulated my curiosity to know more so from that perspective this was a worthwhile read. I think a more in depth treatment of the subjects here would have been warranted.

this is a very good book which confirms or brings some proof to the people at large, as myself, having been visitors to Manhatan and having heard and read about the various rich and powerful who once hovered over the would be paysan population of the heart of Eastern USA. The book describes the behaviours and idiosyncrasies of the effective OWNERS and factual rulers of the developing city. It also demonstrates that people of the sort as the ASTORS and others were very astute developers and contributed constantly upon a dedicated enlargment of the city for the common good. They, in effect started the creation of the big NEW YORK,/ the big apple, without the obvious help of the Washington element while working in family circles. It is somewhat obvious however that nowadays, these type of independent power people are not so free to enhance their holdings.Yet this book is a very timely reading. It confirms the sagas which, we the poeple ,had simply heard about but were not certain of the facts of the matters. Here they are!!!

Great historical account of the early days and formation of New York society, the 400 list, and the famous families that still dominate NY society today. It starts with the first beaver trapping Astor who instilled the value of land in his sons.From a small downtown office, the family managed to purchase nearly all of the available land at the time, although the morality of how they par;ayed this into their fortune is questionable. the book presents the very different personalities of the two sons and heoits of the otriginal Astor who had reservations entrusting his hard earned fortune to them. It goes into further detail about how the rivalries between the wioves of these men fueld a family feud and makes for interesting reading overall. The book is well written and moves along quickly. Definitely worth reading to those who get into this kind of material.

I bought this for my mother as part of her Mother's Day gift.She loved it!

Um meio divertido e eficiente para entender como as grandes fortunas dos EUA nasceram e aplicaram seus recursos. A família Astor chegou a ser proprietária de praticamente toda Manhattan. O autor é ganhador de um Pulitzer.

I couldn't finish the small book, as I couldn't keep up with names, places and I guess I lost my interest in the richearly in the book. Not sure what I thought it would be all about, but wasn't the story line I usually like to follow along with and easy to follow. Guess I was too tired to grasp the whole book

This reads like a history book, not much insider or any personal stories.

Using the information as preparation for our visit to the Robber Baron Mansions on the Hudson. Recommended Read. Very informative.