Empire of the Elite

De: Michael M. Grynbaum

Narrado por: Jacques Roy, Michael M. Grynbaum

From a New York Times media correspondent, a dishy history of the Condé Nast magazine empire, home of Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, and more, focusing on its glitzy heyday from the 1980s through the 2000s.

For decades, Condé Nast and its glittering magazines defined how to live the good life in America. The brilliant, complicated, striving characters behind Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, Architectural Digest, and many other titles manufactured a vision of luxury and sophistication that shaped consumer habits, cultural trends, intellectual attitudes, and political beliefs the world over. Condé’s billionaire owner Si Newhouse and his stable of star editors, photographers, and writers were the gatekeepers who decided what and who mattered, and they offered those opinions to tens of millions of readers every month. They were the ultimate influencers—before social media changed everything. The magazines crowned celebrities by the dozens, patronized creative talent much as the Medicis had underwritten Renaissance artists, and supercharged opulent events like the Vanity Fair Oscar Party and the Met Gala, which came to rival any fete that Louis XIV ever hosted at Versailles. The book is full of fresh behind-the-scenes reporting about a plethora of boldface names and sets out to explain how Condé Nast established itself as a de facto American aristocracy, anointing an elite and dictating the culture they presided over.

The colorful story of Condé Nast at its zenith and the profound way it influenced how Americans aspired to look, eat, decorate, date, marry, and even think, has never been examined deeply. Empire of the Elite is the first book-length history of an empire whose publications refashioned American notions of prestige, whose editors became celebrities themselves, and whose diminution offers a cautionary tale of class, hubris, and technological change, even as its aesthetic and ethos remain influential to this day.

©2025 Michael Grynbaum (P)2025 Simon & Schuster Audio

If you like gossip….

You’ve found your next listen. I don’t know why but this company and its magazines have always fascinated me. This book is an excellent history of the company and of modern American culture. It’s a great story filled with embarrassing tidbits. It’s also funny. Yes fashion is frivolous but this book goes well beyond that. Great narration too.

Great listen!

Enjoyed it. Interesting background on the Conde Dynasty. For those who are interested in the backstory. Loved the detail that went into this.

Great Book! Great Stories ~ Valuable History

First, I read a few reviews prior to buying the book that were negative about the narration. It did seem a bit off but it seemed like a production or technical error. Just slow. I sped it up, which you can adjust, and it was just fine. In fact, I really liked the narration and that voice. Very soothing. The book itself was truly fascinating. The publishing world, the people and culture. This is truly valuable information especially if you have been a consumer of magazines and today, everyone is a consumer of digital content. To understand what and who is behind this, is valuable information. You really should know these things. And now you can. Perfect book for the curious mind!

The narrator gets better eventually, do not abandon right away

The book is great and I wish it came out before all those other Conde memoirs and biographies. I almost gave up on it after hearing the terrible narration of the first couple of chapters, but glad I didn’t because it really gets better (and you also get used to it).

Excellent Book…Terrible Narrator

Every chapter was entertaining and interesting. However, the droning of the narrator was excruciating. He sounded like Ernie Kovacs doing a Percy Dovetonsils skit…so affected and charmed by his own voice, but miserable to the listener.

Narrator was not a good choice

Narrator not a good choice. Distracting and hard at times to understand what he is saying.

Narrators Voice

The author narrated the introduction and had a wonderful crisp and clear voice. They should have narrated entire book. I was very disappointed with the low tonal quality of the narrator

Fantastic surprise! So good!

So interesting! I thought this might be ok but it turns out that it’s fascinating!

I almost didn’t listen though because the audio narrator is…strange. Got used to him.

Hate, hate the narrator’s voice and style (sorry)

This is one of those unfortunate - for me - instances where the preview has one (great) narrator who then exists stage left and the rest of the book - at least the next two chapters which I learn to listen to - is read by someone who is perhaps be better suited for a different line of work, respectfully. Suffice to say I never would’ve paid for the book if that second narrator had been included in the preview.

Hard to listen to

Terrible narration. No emotion, made an interesting history of publishing dull and lifeless. Could put you to sleep.