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.
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