Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune

Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe  322 pp.

As he did with his own family in Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, Anderson Cooper & Katherine Howe chronicle another family of wealth and fame in the Gilded Age of the Robber Barons. The story begins with Johann Jakob (the first John Jacob) Astor's arrival in the U.S. to build his fortune in the fur trade, continuing through the building of the family's wealth through massive real estate holdings in New York, to the last downfall when Brooke Astor's son was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother. There are only brief mentions of the ex-pat branch of the family who created their own dynasty within the British peerage system. Even the less savory episodes in the family are handled matter-of-factly and not inflated by scandal mongering. An epilogue tells a brief history of actress Mary Astor, who was not related but was given the stage name to manufacture a public presence for her budding acting career. I listened to the audiobook version read by Cooper.

Sensational

 Sensational: The Hidden History of America's "Girl Stunt Reporters" by Kim Todd, 400 pages.

In 1887 Elizabeth Cochran, better known today under pen name Nellie Bly, convinced the court she was insane and was committed to the insane asylum on Blackwell's Island. The exposé she wrote about the following ten days changed the face of journalism in the golden age. "Stunt reporting" covered a huge range of topics, but generally it was reporting that was very exciting, a little dangerous, and largely done by women. Stunt reporters often went undercover to get their stories, and said stories were very often about exposing social ills. However, sometimes the "stunts" were more about showing the bigness of a world that was rapidly opening up in the 19th century, and might include things like riding elephants or racing around the world in less than 80 days (another Nellie Bly stunt).

This book is mostly focused on the decade or so that stunt reporting took America by storm, and it's impact on the social landscape. I was a little nervous starting this book, despite being interested in the topic, because I've found that a lot of history books about women (as a group, not so much books about specific individuals) end up containing a whole lot of speculation (from a lack of historical records focused on women) or soap-boxing. This book avoided both of these common pitfalls completely and made for a really enjoyable work of non-fiction that felt extremely informative to read. I also really enjoyed the photographs of key subjects and reproductions of newspaper illustrations, as well as the chapter at the end where Todd talks about the legacy of stunt journalism. Definitely worth the read for a thorough look at a largely unknown piece of history.

The Richest Woman in America

The Richest Woman in America: Hetty Green in the Gilded Age by Janet Wallach  304 pp.

I don't think I ever heard of Hetty Green until I read a review of this book. Henrietta Howland Robinson was born to a Quaker family who earned their money owning whaling ships. She learned about business from her father but he did not allow her to participate in his business ventures. She inherited several million dollars from her father and an aunt and, by her death in 1916, had increased her worth to about $200 million dollars (over $3 billion by today's equivalent). She married Edward Green, the son of a wealthy Vermont family, with a prenuptial agreement that he renounce all rights to her money. Hetty was careful about her investments and after bailing out her husband's bad business deals on more than one occasion, she separated from him but they never divorced. Through her shrewd and careful business dealings, Hetty weathered several of the serious economic panics in the late 19th and early 20th century. In spite of her wealth, she lived an extremely frugal life, moving frequently between boarding house and residential hotels to avoid paying taxes in any one location. She was often ridiculed in the press for her penchant for dowdy clothing, her frequent appearances in the courts for an abundance of lawsuits against others, and her restrictions on her daughter who did not marry until she was in her late thirties. Green was an interesting character.

This is a book worth reading but not because of the biographical information on Hetty Green. I found the most fascinating parts to be about the causes of the various "panics" and financial crises the country faced during her lifetime. Every one of them can be traced to situations similar to what caused our current financial troubles. Proof that Santayana was correct when he said "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."

I listened to the audiobook version and was rather disappointed in some of the mispronunciations and stumbles in the reading that were not corrected in editing.