Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Paperback – September 20, 2022

A fascinating look at another time in our history and a way of life we may have thought we enviedVery well written and an easy read.

I like books that are biographies and historical too, and I would have given it a five but it felt like it was going off track too many times in the end. You go from a heavy historical book to other stories that seem to go off in different tangents. Anyway, it was good.

I really enjoyed this book and learned a lot about the Vanderbilt family. I found their history fascinating and was appalled at how they squandered such an immense fortune. It was a well-written, factual narrative that I highly recommend.

I bought and listened to the Audible version all the way through. Before I listened, I knew basically nothing about the Vanderbilts, aside from they were an old wealthy family and that Gloria sold jeans (though I actually had not made the connection between the old family and Gloria until the book).Pros:- Cooper is, not surprisingly, a great narrator. Clear and polished without being affected.- The book delivered to some extent on its title, describing the rise and fall of the dynasty, though emphasizing the fall.- Certainly I know more about the Vanderbilts than I did before the book and have some sense of their place in history.Cons:- The book did not pay nearly enough attention to how the money was made. Basically, we hear a lot about how Commodore Cornelius got his start, which was great, but not how he built an empire. How people make money is important. Was it hard work and smart decisions? What were those decisions? Management style? How did the transition into railroads work? Who were other important people in the businesses? Was he a straight shooter or slimy? Is there a "great crime" behind the great fortune? And then, we get to BIlly, his primary heir, who in eight years *doubled* what was already the country's largest fortune, but *nothing* about how he made that happen (or whether he lucked into it). From there we hear little about the Vanderbilt involvement with the railroad, even though they seemed to be at least a little involved.Basically, if you're going to present the rise and fall of a dynasty, spend at least as much time talking about how it was created (the hard part) as you do about how it was dissipated.- The book involves a lot of time travel, with flashbacks, forward, sideways. It does this at both a chapter level and within the chapters. It was incredibly hard to follow at times, especially since I had not heard of any of these people before. This, along with sometimes not naming the people being talked about until well into a story, was completely unhelpful. The stories themselves are frequently dramatic, and they don't need these devices to make them so.- Way too much detail about flowers at parties, attire, and home furnishings. It worked for Edith Wharton but not so well here.- Way too many details that are speculative. "He would have felt the ..." It seemed like there was an attempt at literary fiction here - it didn't succeed for me.- Why was there an entire chapter about Truman Capote? I get that he and Gloria were friends, but that doesn't seem to me to justify an entire chapter, or if it does, the chapter should be mostly about their relationship, and not a mini-biography of his rise and fall.

This book was so interesting I couldn’t put it down. So much history. The Vanderbilt family will always go down in history. They were rich and sometimes poor but they did it their way. They lived a life of excitement, sometimes happy, sometimes sad. But they built their Dynasty. I would’ve loved to had met them.Highly recommend this book.

When discussing a family history, there will always be parts uninteresting to those outside the family, this books has those. However, interesting the vast wealth diminished by so many who were clueless.Still worth the read.

I ordered this book when I was about halfway through Anderson's 'ASTOR' book. Both volumes are multi-generational biographies of two prominent families before, during and after the Guilded Age (1870ish- 1900). Vanderbilt is a bit different from Astor because Anderson is discussing his own lineage, and covers a lot about his mother, Gloria Vanderbilt. I found both books hard to put down. Absolutely fascinating families and how they earned and spent their millions.

I just finished this riveting, very well written account of the Vanderbilt dynasty, from Cornelius Vanderbilt all the way to the author, Anderson Cooper.I truly could not stop reading about the rise and fall, as the title states, of these fascinating people. From Staten Island to glittering Gilded Age Mansions to England and to Europe, I learned so much.I cannot recommend this book enough!!

Great look into the lives of one of America's most wealthy families.

I strongly recommend Anderson Cooper's version of the Vanderbilts. Not only because of the great research work but for the point of view from which he visions his ancestors and their individual contribution to both America's and the world's social and trending evolution.

to be honest i was a little dissapointed.

Interesting reading recommended to everybody

This writing team have produced the best, most interesting and most human of the books that I have read about the super-rich American families of the 19th century. Mr Cooper's family insight is invaluable. A must for anyone interested in this period.