Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Unlike other reviewers, I didn't read this book with the expectation that I'd get insights into the emotional biographies of each of the Astors. Good thing, too, because it isn't here. The relationships between the family members -- and these people could clearly put on a good snit with one another -- is told at arm's length, as if much of the research done was from the newspapers of the time. We don't know what John Jacob Astor thought as much as what he did. Which is okay, too.

The Astors _were_ slightly bizarre (such as working very hard to find a geneaology more uplifting than a successful furrier who was the son of a Baden butcher), and they were definitely influential; I grew up in 1960s New York, and I still felt their influence through my grandparents' attitudes. Among other things, the Astors owned a huge percentage of the real estate of Manhattan island, including the tenements in which many of our ancestors lived.

Where Kaplan's book succeeds is in its ability to capture the gilded era in which these super-rich people lived: a time in which being rich meant being the _idle_ rich, with little to keep themselves occupied other than social engagements or getting involved in the "mine is bigger and more elegant than yours" competitions -- the objects involved being luxury hotels, in this case.

Today, our celebrities are movie stars and musicians. In this era, Kaplan explains, the attention of the media was on the famous rich, the parties they threw, the hissy fits that occassionally happened in public. "According to Mark Twain," he writes, "the appetite for news of the moneyed classes and their doings could be satisfied even by a page-one headline, RICH WOMAN FALLS DOWN STAIRS, NOT HURT."

The Astors are the excuse for the book, but you'll enjoy the book more by focusing on the part after the colon: blue bloods and grand hotels in a gilded age. We learn quite a bit of detail about each of the hotels built -- primarily the original Waldorf-Astoria, a collaboration of convenience through clenched teeth. That sounds awfully dull, but these hotels were so innovative for their time, and so over-the-top in what they offered and to whom, that the book kept my interest without flagging. Writes the author, "The Waldorf-Astoria made dining and lunching in public fashionable, brought society out into the open, and inspired an age of lavish entertainments, parties, balls, and dinners -- grand occasions previously confined to public houses."

We learn everything from the invention of the Waldorf salad to the relationship between the Astors and the other powerful families of the time (such as the Roosevelts, Vanderbilts, and the Astor who was related by marriage to President Taft), to the political effect of Mrs Cornelia Astor's party during an economic recession, "half a million dollars gone up in frippery and flowers," at which Mrs Astor wore Marie Antoinette's crown jewels. All far, far more entertaining than the "news" in the latest issue of People magazine.

This isn't an important, scholarly book, but I definitely recommend it if you're interested in the ambiance of an earlier age, or curious about the history of New York. Or heck, for no reason whatsoever. It's interesting stuff.

When the Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age by Justin Kaplan is a bit of a disappointment. From the title and description, I was looking for a biography of the Astor family along with a taste of history about the times they lived in. While there is some brief biographical information in the book, much of it is focused on the hotels they (and others) built. Pages are allotted to the Palmer House in Chicago (which they didn't build), but far less to John Jacob Astor's death on the Titanic. His scandalous divorce and marriage to a much younger woman are also glossed over. His uncle William Waldorf Astor's life is covered in far greater detail, but even he doesn't get full coverage. Gossipy bits and pieces of the times are dropped here and there. Kaplan goes overboard in quoting Henry James in his eloquence about the beauty of hotels. There are pages of quotes from James, often repeated. The book meanders and repeats itself as well. I suppose not much should be expected from such a slim volume, but I was hoping for more.

I really enjoyed this book and appreciated the many imfomative anecdotes that the author obviously searched out...take it from me...after reading MANY accounts of the famous Bradley-Martin Ball, this author actually researched the fact that the U.S. Marine Band was sent up from Washington. In all the accounts of this famous evening that are available, all that is mentioned is "a band" played ...that's the sort of detail that makes this book so enjoyable.

Having my great-aunt on the cover also added to my selfish recommendation of this book. The only negative I have is that there was an appalling lack of footnotes and specific references. That is truly unfortunate. Otherwise, this book will provide light, entertaining and very enjoyable fare!

When The Astors Owned New York is a wonderfully concise version of a period in American history. It is not meant to be a person-by-person account of the Astor family, virtually skipping the grand Mrs. Astor as she is only tangentially related to the plot, which is the change in America during the Gilded Age. By centering on great-grandsons of the dynasty's founder, Kaplan is able to connect their wealth and dreams to that very specific period. When John Jacob Astor IV died on the Titanic and William Waldorf Astor died in his stately imperious mansion seven years later, that part of history was already ending. The hotels that they designed, that captured the American imagination, were rapidly disappearing.

Kaplan does very well in sticking to his central themes, and when he wanders, it's always for a short bit of fun that makes for grand reading. You can't write a history of any Astor without some gossip, but Kaplan puts those nuggets in their place and stays with his storyline as intended. If you want a quick read about some Astor family members, perhaps as a launching pad into some of the meatier biographies, definitely start here, but if you are interested in the period and what some Astors did with their money, Kaplan's is so far the latest word.

The Astors are an iconic American family, rising from immigrant roots to great wealth and aristocratic pretensions, undermined by their own social ambition and self-imposed isolation and finally, in later generations, fading from economic and social prominence. (104 year-old Brooke Astor, the widow of Vincent, is the last multi-millionaire Astor, and will leave no Astor heirs.) Yet this book purports to be, not about the Astors, but about the great hotels that they conceived and built, including such landmarks as the old Waldorf-Astoria, The Astor and the St. Regis. As such, the book lacks focus and is poorly integrated; it's not quite a bio of the Astors, since it's character portraits are superficial, but it's not really about the great hotels either, because it limits that story to the role played by the Astors. The result is disjointed and, occasionally, boring. This author knows alot about the Astors and would have done better to write a straightforward biography or family history.

Justin Kaplan, the Pulitzer prize-winning author of "Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain" has recently published a work of entertaining history. "When the Astors Owned New York" offers readers a voyeuristic look into the lives of New York City's high society during the Gilded Age, a society in which the Astor family remained at the pinnacle for many decades. It begins with an account of the life of the founding father of this American dynasty, John Jacob Astor (1763-1848), and progresses through five generations of the Astor male line, with a lengthy interruption to elaborate on the life of Caroline Schermerhorn Astor, wife of William Backhouse Astor, Jr., who successfully positioned herself as grande dame of New York society. The main focus of the book, however, is the rivalry between cousins William Waldorf and John Jacob Astor IV and their competition to build New York City's largest and grandest hotel.

The author acquaints the reader with America's Gilded Age aristocracy known as the New York Four Hundred, of which Caroline Astor (referred to as "the" Mrs. Astor) positioned herself as matriarch. It reveals the inner workings of this society, the snobbery between "old" and "new" money, and the requirements for being accepted into Mrs. Astor's inner circle.

The book's description of the rivalry between cousins William and John Jacob IV and their success in building several of the world's finest hotels gives the reader insight into how the grand hotels became the center of New York social life and provided both the media and the masses a means of getting close to and observing the lives of the elite. Because the elaborate parties of these socialites were now being held at the grand hotels rather than in the privacy of their homes, the public could live vicariously through what they witnessed firsthand or read in the newspapers about the elite. Kaplan suggests that the hotel "provided a means for the public to glimpse into the lives of the rich and maybe learn from them." What the public was to "learn" is unclear.

Kaplan's vivid depiction of the Astor's "castles of capitalism" not only offers an entertaining view of Gilded Age history, but also educates us as to how New York society and its grand hotels helped to shape this era of America's history. His inclusion of the Astor family tree was extremely helpful in keeping the book's characters straight, as the Astor family had a penchant for recycling family names again and again. Of interest also, was Kaplan's inclusion of facts about items in use today that have origins in the grand hotels like the Waldorf-Astoria. The chafing dish, the use of the velvet rope to allow/prevent entry, and the Waldorf salad are but a few that are mentioned in the book.

Kaplan does tend to overuse foreign terms with which the average reader is sure to be unfamiliar, and his writing sometimes emits an air of sarcasm in describing the elite. Overall, however, the book is a very enjoyable and entertaining read and is highly recommended to those interested in America's Gilded Age.

This book, while initially giving the impression of being a recounting of the Astor family, actually turns into a history of hotels in New York City built by wealthy people. As a biography it was well done, but as a history of the hotels it is extremely interesting. There are some asides about the inter-family feuds of the Astors, and it mentions, in passing, the death of John Jacob IV on the Titanic (perhaps more should have been said about this). To those interested in the early history of New York, and its famous hotels, this is required reading!

Book was not what I expected. Does not delve into characters,but more or less who begot who and rivalries, hotel building, and so on. If you're looking for character development or revelation, this is not what you want.

After the first Astor established a dynasty of immense wealth, his children and grandchildren established a dynasty of immense, elegant hotels that catered to and created a pampered, bloated American aristocracy. A fascinating topic (well, at least to me, who is entranced by the Gilded Age), but the book is short on details or interesting anecdotes (though, maybe the Astors are really just that boring and unlikeable), is clumsily written, not engaging (though the topic is), flat and disinterested. I'd love to see this topic in capable and interested hands. Grade: B

Very boring. Not much information about the Astors. And only a lttle about the time of the century. Waste of money.