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Vanderbilt

The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

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Vanderbilt

Written by: Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe
Narrated by: Anderson Cooper
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About this listen

New York Times bestselling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty—his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts.

When eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and a pathological desire for money, build two empires—one in shipping and another in railroads—that would make him the richest man in America. His staggering fortune was fought over by his heirs after his death in 1877, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. Though his son Billy doubled the money left by “the Commodore,” subsequent generations competed to find new and ever more extraordinary ways of spending it. By 2018, when the last Vanderbilt was forced out of The Breakers—the seventy-room summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, that Cornelius’s grandson and namesake had built—the family would have been unrecognizable to the tycoon who started it all.

Now, the Commodore’s great-great-great-grandson Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their outsized influence. Cooper and Howe breathe life into the ancestors who built the family’s empire, basked in the Commodore’s wealth, hosted lavish galas, and became synonymous with unfettered American capitalism and high society. Moving from the hardscrabble wharves of old Manhattan to the lavish drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, from the ornate summer palaces of Newport to the courts of Europe, and all the way to modern-day New York, Cooper and Howe wryly recount the triumphs and tragedies of an American dynasty unlike any other.

Written with a unique insider’s viewpoint, this is a rollicking, quintessentially American history as remarkable as the family it so vividly captures.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Americas Business Entertainment & Celebrities Professionals & Academics United States Celebrity New York Money Gilded Age Heartfelt Biography Business History
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Interesting story of the "gilded age" and the history of this family. I really enjoyed Anderson reading it - a familiar and easy to listen to voice. I enjoyed it enough that when returning from walks, I often wanted to keep listening :-) The only issue I have with it, is that it could have easily been longer. With all of the stories and interconnected storylines (Truman Capote, the Astors, the Lusitania), it was very entertaining and interesting to listen to the way the world was in ages gone by.

Very Engaging Story

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I read this book first, before The Rainbow Comes and Goes, and suggest you do the same. This was quite an eye opening look inside a famous family, and it wasn’t pretty. Very thorough. The things that happened to Gloria Vanderbilt, Anderson’s mom, are truly shocking. And of course she would have been lost, and with a burden it took a lifetime to sort out. Don’t despair… hearing her voice in her 90’s talk about how she came to terms with it in The Rainbow Comes and Goes is inspiring.

Read this one first

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Nicely read and easy to listen to by Anderson Cooper.
Especially when you are older and remember some of the names and events

Very interesting

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While my business and family may not, I thank you Anderson and Katherine for writing this book. It has piqued so many curiosities and sent me down so many rabbit holes of history I may never return.

Incredible

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rarely do we hear such first person accounts from the descendants of famous and vaccinating people...

fascinating history from a great raconteur

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