A NPR Best Book of the Year

The number oneNew York Timesbestselling authors ofVanderbiltreturn with anotherriveting history ofa legendary American family, theAstors, and how they built and lavished their fortune.

The story of theAstorsis a quintessentially American story—of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention.

From 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society.

The familyfortune,first madebyabeaver trapping business that grew into an empire,wasthen amplified by holdings inManhattanreal estate. Over the ensuing generations,AstorsruledGilded AgeNew York societyandinserted themselves into political and cultural life,but also suffered the mostfamous loss on theTitanic,one ofmany shocking and unexpected twists inthe family’s story.

In this unconventional, page-turninghistorical biography, featuring black-and-white and color photographs,#1New York Timesbestselling authorsAnderson Cooper andKatherineHowechronicle the lives of theAstorsand explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America—offering a window onto the making of America itself.