Vanderbilt

The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty

De: Anderson Cooper, Katherine Howe

Narrado por: Anderson Cooper

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.

An American story

Thank you Mr. Cooper! For sharing your family’s story. And allowing us to know the Vanderbilt side of your family.
An American story! Very well written! I enjoyed both of your books so far. The rainbow
Comes and gos.

A Name-Dropping Joy!!!

This book is a super quick read and Anderson reads his family’s biographical stories with such a pleasant cadence. Absolutely phenomenal!

Sometimes what you perceive is different in actuality

My husband and I listen to audiobooks on road trips and chose this one for a weekend trip to California that included a long stint on I-10 between Phoenix and Los Angeles. That stretch is supremely windy and filled with eighteen-wheelers that vie for position among all the passenger cars. It's stressful to navigate that road. And as much as we love to do road trips, we don't exactly love having to take that highway to get where we're going. This book was perfect to help us keep our minds calm and engaged during that part of our trip and beyond. Anderson Cooper tells the story of his ancestry in the same way he reports any good story, thoroughly with no-holds barred. His family story is filled with tragedy in almost every generation. There are plenty of excesses their fortune allowed for them. But the Vanderbilt family isn't what people think it is. Their reign has been over for a long time. The story is fascinating to listen to and to perhaps learn from. And it makes you realize that the famous proverb attributed to Rousseau where he states in 1750, "Money can buy material things, but real happiness must be truly earned," certainly still applies.

Riveting

Loved the details, the salacious descriptions and rhe loves now told. I could barely keep myself from listening in one go.

my goodness, what a family!

I really enjoyed this intimate view of a family widely acknowledged as American royals, and to see how their desires and lavished lifestyles led to such end as we know today. Anderson Cooper is a wonderful narrator who gives the accounts in a way which made it difficult to stop listening.