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When the Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age [Bargain Price] (Paperback)

~ (Author) "A SEVENTEEN John Jacob Astor, founder of an American dynasty, left the German village of Waldorf, where he was born in 1763, and came to..." (more)
Key Phrases: town topics, New York, John Jacob Astor, Fifth Avenue (more...)
3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)

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Paperback, Bargain Price, June 26, 2007 --   $11.97 $8.60

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This frothy look at several generations of Astors by the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain is custom-made for the Waldorf gift shop. The tightwad founder of the Astor dynasty was a butcher's son from the German backwater of Waldorf. By the time John Jacob Astor died in 1848 at the age of 84, the richest man in America had turned a fur trade monopoly into a Manhattan real estate empire. Astor House, his "astonishing" luxury hotel adjacent to City Hall, cosseted the likes of Abraham Lincoln and Britain's future King Edward VII in its 80-year history. John Jacob's "phlegmatic and cautious" son, William, increased the family fortune, married a blueblood and sired sons who couldn't abide one another. "Imperious and somber" John Jacob III and playboy William, who was married to society queen Caroline Schermerhorn, passed on the family feud to their sons who managed to combine forces in 1897 to build the Waldorf-Astoria. Prickly and snobbish William Waldorf Astor failed in New York State politics, became a novelist and an art collector, and died a British viscount. John Jacob IV's military service and his death on the Titanic helped temper his reputation as a spoiled fool. B&w photos. (June 5)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

When it opened on Broadway in 1836, John Jacob Astor's hotel Astor House was called a "marvel of the age." However, it was nothing compared to the hotel built some 60 years later by Astor's great-grandsons, William Waldorf and John Jacob IV. Since the cousins could never agree on anything, the Waldorf-Astoria was actually two hotels, connected by corridors that could be sealed off. Henry James, back in the U.S. after an absence of 20 years, stayed there and described it as "one of my few glimpses of perfect human felicity." Kaplan is well known as a biographer, but he presents an unconventional biography here, crafting a fascinating work of social history by focusing on the cousins' hotel-building mania. The Waldorf-Astoria and other Astor hotels served as the stage for the family drama, as well as for people anxious to show off their wealth, and also helped define a new standard of luxury for the aspiring middle class. Mary Ellen Quinn
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 208 pages
  • Publisher: Plume (June 26, 2007)
  • ISBN-10: 0452288584
  • ASIN: B001G8WKJO
  • Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.5 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 8 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #446,412 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Justin Kaplan
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Front Cover | Front Flap | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Flap | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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A SEVENTEEN John Jacob Astor, founder of an American dynasty, left the German village of Waldorf, where he was born in 1763, and came to New York by way of London. Read the first page
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town topics
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New York, John Jacob Astor, Fifth Avenue, William Waldorf Astor, United States, Caroline Astor, Hever Castle, New Netherland, Henry James, Colonel Astor, Times Square, Palmer House, Jack Astor, Tremont House, Hotel Astor, Queen Victoria, Temple Place, Manhattan Island, Prince Street, Wall Street, Amy Richardson, Brown Brothers, Cliveden Set, Prince of Wales, Republican Party
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Customer Reviews

17 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
3.3 out of 5 stars (17 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars A slice of life from the turn of the last century, July 28, 2006
By Esther Schindler (Scottsdale, AZ USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: When the Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age (Hardcover)
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.
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17 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "May The Force Be With You" and the Astor's, June 21, 2006
By Kenneth R. Force (Kings Point, New York) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: When the Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age (Hardcover)
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!
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Slim volume promises much delivers little, September 5, 2006
This review is from: When the Astors Owned New York: Blue Bloods and Grand Hotels in a Gilded Age (Hardcover)
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.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars When the Astors Owned New York
The book tells the story of the enormous wealth of the Astors at a time referred to as The Gilded Age. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Adrienne E. Sanderson

1.0 out of 5 stars Huge Disappointment
I hesitate to give a less than desirable review, but for me, the book was nothing like I had hoped it would be. Read more
Published 11 months ago by Gigi

2.0 out of 5 stars Reservations
This is a very slim read that inspired me to read other books on the same and similar subjects. However the Astors are not as interesting as the Vanderbilts.
Published 11 months ago by Phyllis Cairns

5.0 out of 5 stars Bookseller for When the Astors Owned NY
This bookseller is very good. I received my book promptly and in perfect condition as promised.. I would do business with them again.
Published 16 months ago by Champanoz

3.0 out of 5 stars Writers versus historians
The author of this book, Justin Kaplan, is clearly more a writer than a historian. Personally I felt that this relatively short book (180 pages) was quite readable and got through... Read more
Published 17 months ago by david brown

1.0 out of 5 stars Boring!
My, this is a dull book! Justin Kaplan may be one of the darlings of an elder generation of the literary-academic set, but he doesn't have the least idea how to write prose that... Read more
Published 19 months ago by a reader

4.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining history of the Astors and New York's elite
Justin Kaplan, the Pulitzer prize-winning author of "Mr. Clemens and Mark Twain" has recently published a work of entertaining history. Read more
Published on November 28, 2007 by Gwendolyn Filardi

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent introduction to "the 400", the Astors, and the rise of the grand hotels
This book is an excellent introduction to the history of "the 400" (or "the Four Hundred") and the Astor family for the many people who seek such information. Read more
Published on November 29, 2006 by Sheilah Vance

4.0 out of 5 stars Hotel Mania
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. Read more
Published on November 27, 2006 by Frank J. Konopka

3.0 out of 5 stars Mostly history
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. Read more
Published on August 9, 2006 by W. E. BAKER

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