"Our Crowd"

Author: Stephen Birmingham
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504026284
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 396

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Book Description
The #1 New York Times bestseller that traces the rise of the Guggenheims, the Goldmans, and other families from immigrant poverty to social prominence. They immigrated to America from Germany in the nineteenth century with names like Loeb, Sachs, Seligman, Lehman, Guggenheim, and Goldman. From tenements on the Lower East Side to Park Avenue mansions, this handful of Jewish families turned small businesses into imposing enterprises and amassed spectacular fortunes. But despite possessing breathtaking wealth that rivaled the Astors and Rockefellers, they were barred by the gentile establishment from the lofty realm of “the 400,” a register of New York’s most elite, because of their religion and humble backgrounds. In response, they created their own elite “100,” a privileged society as opulent and exclusive as the one that had refused them entry. “Our Crowd” is the fascinating story of this rarefied society. Based on letters, documents, diary entries, and intimate personal remembrances of family lore by members of these most illustrious clans, it is an engrossing portrait of upper-class Jewish life over two centuries; a riveting story of the bankers, brokers, financiers, philanthropists, and business tycoons who started with nothing and turned their family names into American institutions.

"Our Crowd"

Author: Stephen Birmingham
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504026284
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 396

Get Book Here

Book Description
The #1 New York Times bestseller that traces the rise of the Guggenheims, the Goldmans, and other families from immigrant poverty to social prominence. They immigrated to America from Germany in the nineteenth century with names like Loeb, Sachs, Seligman, Lehman, Guggenheim, and Goldman. From tenements on the Lower East Side to Park Avenue mansions, this handful of Jewish families turned small businesses into imposing enterprises and amassed spectacular fortunes. But despite possessing breathtaking wealth that rivaled the Astors and Rockefellers, they were barred by the gentile establishment from the lofty realm of “the 400,” a register of New York’s most elite, because of their religion and humble backgrounds. In response, they created their own elite “100,” a privileged society as opulent and exclusive as the one that had refused them entry. “Our Crowd” is the fascinating story of this rarefied society. Based on letters, documents, diary entries, and intimate personal remembrances of family lore by members of these most illustrious clans, it is an engrossing portrait of upper-class Jewish life over two centuries; a riveting story of the bankers, brokers, financiers, philanthropists, and business tycoons who started with nothing and turned their family names into American institutions.

Certain People

Certain People PDF Author: Stephen Birmingham
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504095596
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
The #1 New York Times–bestselling author of Our Crowd shares an intimate social history of America’s elite Black society in the 1970s. From New York to Chicago, Atlanta, and Washington, DC, Stephen Birmingham met with members of Black America’s upper crust—those old families of money and lineage who send their children to boarding schools and make business alliances over charity dinners. Invited into their homes, he became acquainted with their private world: their traditions and customs, their networks and conflicts, and, of course, their many stories. In Certain People, Birmingham presents a panoramic social history of upper-class Black society, one full of anecdotes and telling observations. From the Palmer Memorial Institute of North Carolina, where the best families sent their children, to the halls of the Johnson Publishing Company, creator of Ebony and Jet magazines, Birmingham provides an intimate glimpse of this exclusive crowd.

The Grandees

The Grandees PDF Author: Stephen Birmingham
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504026322
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
The New World’s earliest Jewish immigrants and their unique, little-known history: A New York Times bestseller from the author of Life at the Dakota. In 1654, twenty-three Jewish families arrived in New Amsterdam (now New York) aboard a French privateer. They were the Sephardim, members of a proud orthodox sect that had served as royal advisors and honored professionals under Moorish rule in Spain and Portugal but were then exiled from their homeland by intolerant monarchs. A small, closed, and intensely private community, the Sephardim soon established themselves as businessmen and financiers, earning great wealth. They became powerful forces in society, with some, like banker Haym Salomon, even providing financial support to George Washington’s army during the American Revolution. Yet despite its major role in the birth and growth of America, this extraordinary group has remained virtually impenetrable and unknowable to outsiders. From author of “Our Crowd” Stephen Birmingham, The Grandees delves into the lives of the Sephardim and their historic accomplishments, illuminating the insulated world of these early Americans. Birmingham reveals how these families, with descendants including poet Emma Lazarus, Barnard College founder Annie Nathan Meyer, and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo, influenced—and continue to influence—American society.

Life at the Dakota

Life at the Dakota PDF Author: Stephen Birmingham
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
ISBN: 9780815603382
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 276

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Book Description
This social history describes the lives of the rich and trendy who have lived at the Dakota, a New York apartment house daringly erected in 1884, too far up and on the wrong side of town. The book covers tenants such as the Gustav Schirmers, Boris Karloff, Judy Holliday and Lauren Bacall.

The Rothman Scandal

The Rothman Scandal PDF Author: Stephen Birmingham
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504040481
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 719

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Book Description
Long-held and terrible family secrets threaten to destroy the Rothmans, New York’s premier publishing dynasty, in this witty and suspenseful novel by one of America’s foremost chroniclers of the wealthy.

Carriage Trade

Carriage Trade PDF Author: Stephen Birmingham
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504026330
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 393

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Book Description
The suspicious death of a New York retail tycoon reveals dangerous cracks in a family’s foundation in this page-turning novel of wealth, jealousy, betrayal, and murder One of New York’s most elegant and exclusive retail establishments, Tarkington’s has been the preferred shopping experience of Manhattan’s elite for decades. But the unexpected death of founder Silas Tarkington has raised serious doubts about the future of the enterprise, and his daughter, Miranda, must weigh the pros and cons of continuing her father’s legacy. Then, at the reading of Silas’s will, disturbing questions arise about the tycoon’s past and suggestions of a dark, secret life threaten to tear the family apart. For Miranda; her elegant socialite mother, Consuelo; her estranged son, Blazer; and Diana, the fieriest and most recent in the late entrepreneur’s long line of mistresses, the truth could destroy much more than the family business—especially as it becomes more and more likely that Silas’s death was no accident. Author Stephen Birmingham has spent his career documenting the lives of the wealthy and powerful in his bestsellers “Our Crowd” and “The Rest of Us”. Putting his unique inside knowledge of the privileged world of the upper crust to excellent use, he has devised a thrilling story of money, power, deception, and treachery that will keep the reader eagerly turning its pages.

The Wrong Kind of Money

The Wrong Kind of Money PDF Author: Stephen Birmingham
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504026349
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 381

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Book Description
A gripping novel of dark family secrets, bigotry, lust, and lies set in the world of the phenomenally wealthy The Liebling family is among the wealthiest in New York, but in the eyes of “old money” gentile aristocrats like the patrician Van Degans, they will always be lower-class Jewish nouveau riche—especially since it’s common knowledge that patriarch Jules Liebling built the powerful Ingraham Corporation from the profits he made selling liquor during Prohibition while in cahoots with dangerous mobsters. Jules is long dead and his widow, Hannah, runs the business with a tyrannical hand. Hannah is reluctant to turn over the reins to the heir apparent, her capable son Noah, despite the fact that she is now well into her eighties. But when Noah’s wife, Carol, meets Georgette Van Degan for lunch at Le Cirque, gossip circulates around Manhattan about a thaw between the families and, quite possibly, a partnership. As rumors fly, family skeletons on both sides are exposed, leading to jealousy, betrayal, and even violence. Author Stephen Birmingham explores the dark side of wealth, family, and privilege in The Wrong Kind of Money, brilliantly displaying his phenomenal storytelling skill along with his intimate knowledge of the lives of America’s aristocrats.

Shades of Fortune

Shades of Fortune PDF Author: Stephen Birmingham
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1504026365
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 400

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Book Description
From the New York Times–bestselling author of “Our Crowd”: A novel of a powerful family, a cosmetics empire, and the dark secrets that could destroy both. Mireille “Mimi” Myerson took her grandfather’s struggling cosmetics company and turned it into an empire. But suddenly, as she prepares to launch a new perfume line, Mimi is faced with hidden threats at every turn. Her efforts to further expand the enormously successful Miray Corporation could be sabotaged from within by her own treacherous family, for there is a dangerous rot beneath the surface of the wealthy and aristocratic “Magnificent Myersons”: a dark tradition of lies, sexual perversity, and criminal activity that could undermine everything Mimi hopes to accomplish. With the discovery of her husband’s affair and the return of real estate magnate Michael Horowitz, her first and most enduring love, Mimi must determine whom she can trust—especially in light of the shocking revelations that are about to emerge regarding the birth of the Miray Corporation. In both his bestselling nonfiction (“Our Crowd”, The Right People) and fiction (Carriage Trade, The Auerbach Will) author Stephen Birmingham has demonstrated an unparalleled understanding of the ways of America’s extremely rich. This unique knowledge comes into glorious play in his blistering novel Shades of Fortune, a thrilling and unforgettable breakneck ride through the darkest passageways of wealth and success.

The Most Dangerous Book

The Most Dangerous Book PDF Author: Kevin Birmingham
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0143127543
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
Recipient of the 2015 PEN New England Award for Nonfiction “The arrival of a significant young nonfiction writer . . . A measured yet bravura performance.” —Dwight Garner, The New York Times James Joyce’s big blue book, Ulysses, ushered in the modernist era and changed the novel for all time. But the genius of Ulysses was also its danger: it omitted absolutely nothing. Joyce, along with some of the most important publishers and writers of his era, had to fight for years to win the freedom to publish it. The Most Dangerous Book tells the remarkable story surrounding Ulysses, from the first stirrings of Joyce’s inspiration in 1904 to the book’s landmark federal obscenity trial in 1933. Written for ardent Joyceans as well as novices who want to get to the heart of the greatest novel of the twentieth century, The Most Dangerous Book is a gripping examination of how the world came to say Yes to Ulysses.

The Right People

The Right People PDF Author: Stephen Birmingham
Publisher: Lyons Press
ISBN: 9781493024674
Category : United States
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The Right People is an engrossing and illuminating journey through the customs and habits of the phenomenally wealthy, from the San Francisco elite to the upper crust of New York's Westchester County.