Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Social Power in a Gilded Age

User Review: - N.Y's aristocracy before and during the Gilded Age
The reason I gave the specific title to this review as I did ,is because as another reviewer stated, the title of this book is a bit deceiving.

In actuality, this book is a nice history book about New York City's ARISTOCRACY before and also during the Gilded Age. It is true that Mrs. Astor was very much a part of the upper class during the Gilded Age, however, this book covers many more participants---more than just Mrs. Astor.

This book begins with a history of NEW AMSTERDAM, as Manhattan was once called. This book gives a nice background (in an historical fashion) to the Dutch and German families that were involved in the development of "New Amsterdam". For those that are not familiar with this information, I think this book will fascinate them, as it did me. I am not from New York City but I do have relatives there and have visited New York many times, so it was interesting for me to learn more about the early beginnings of this fascinating city.

This book also discusses the "Knickerbockers", and why they were so famous. Also, this book points out why some "early" families were so powerful in New York , and why for so long (eg: the Brevoorts, the Roosevelts, the Delanos, the Stuyvasants, the Goelets, the Schermerhorns, etc).

This book then covers the development of the neighborhoods in Manhattan and it's surrounding areas (eg: Bond Street, Lafayette Place, etc).

Next, this book goes into great detail about how and why the aristocracy of New York City socialized in the ways that they did (eg: the famous upper-class Balls, or,for instance the special dances performed there & the food and flowers, etc.)

Then, this book covers a background on why the Churches, the Metropolitan, the Libraries, and other famous GILDED AGE structures were so important, not just to the wealthy class, but to New Yorkers in general.

The photos in this book show what some of the large wealthier N.Y.City homes actually looked like, before they were torn down in the 1900's. Many photos show the sketches or paintings of these beautiful homes, from the early to mid 1800's.

Also included, are many photos of the famous aristocrats that shaped New York City (eg: Henry Brevoort, the Heinrich Fiedler family, Philip Hone, Mrs Stuyvesant Fish, Augustus Belmont, James Gordon Bennett, Cornelius Vanderbilt II and his wife Alice, Wm.Vanderbilt, Wm. Astor, Ward McAllister, and of course Mrs Caroline Astor ("The Mrs Astor"), etc.

There is an entire chapter on Ward McAllister's life and how he came to be the "society assistant" to Mrs Astor, later on in his life. The reason McCallister was given an entire chapter, is probably because he was so pivotal in maneuvering the ins-and-outs of the upper class New Yorkers during the Gilded Age. The book also describes how the general public and the various newpapers reacted to the ostantaciousness of the upper class New Yorkers (ie: both negatively and positively---and also politically).

The book ends with a chapter on Mrs. Caroline Astor.
In this last chapter, the author ties in & explains why Mrs. Astor was so important to the upper-class New Yorkers, and why she was one of the last aristocrats to entertain the upper crust in the "older" fashion (ie: in the PATRIARCH tradition).

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User Review: - Very Disappointing & Frustrating
I've been reading about the Gilded Age and turned to this book with great expectations that have been dashed. How could the editor have let the book go through as it is? Yes, it's a beautiful package and well-enough written (though hardly an Edith Wharton novel as one reviewer said, as quoted on the back cover). The book's title is completely deceptive. A good third of the book is not about the Gilded Age at all, but goes back to the 1800-1850 period and sometimes in tedious detail. It does not help me at all to know the customs involved in women making calls upon other women in 1800 when those customs had changed by the late 19th century. While one can make a case that the roots of the Gilded Age need to be exposed, you don't have to go that far back and into that much detail. The First Four Hundred, which this author sneers at in a footnote, is far more focused and helpful, and a much better source of information, though this book's opening chapter was fascinating.

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User Review: - Scholarly and definitive, but tedious
MRS. ASTOR'S NEW YORK deservedly will become the definitive work regarding the City of New York and, specifically, its upper class, during that period of the 19th Century known as the "Gilded Age."

As such, this book is as much about the evolution of the modern city as it is about the robber barons who shaped the era. The research is impeccable and almost ponderously thorough.

The title, however, is somewhat misleading, as the volume is does not focus on Mrs. Astor individually but, rather, on what she meant to her contemporaries in terms of being a symbol and an inspiration as to how one should live.

Eric Homberger is an excellent writer. Yet the mass of information he presents, albeit significant, is too tedious to make for an entertaining read. As a work of historical record, however, MRS. ASTOR'S NEW YORK is invaluable.

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User Review: - Fascinating but not quite what I expected...
This book really doesn't seem to be about Mrs. Astor or even the daily world she lived in, so much as it is about the History of New York. In the first several chapters the author chronicles lucidly, but perfunctorily, the attachments, financial and domestic, and above all architectural and urban of several wealthy New York families. From the earliest times post the Revolution, New York society had exceedingly difficult standards with some families struggling to get into society or stay in, and others struggling to keep some of those families, or individuals out. Quickly a dichotomy reveals itself between those who have money, and those who have a family line stretching back to Adam, with the power of money vs. lineage constantly alternating, though lineage always seems to have a slightly upper hand, or think it does. That mentality as expressed by the evolution of neighborhoods emerges for the first two thirds of the book. Homberger does a fascinating study of the ascendancies and declines of such old neighborhoods such as St Johns Park and Bond street and how families strategically placed themselves in these neighborhoods, and strategically sold out, devoting themselves to building new mansions elsewhere, always further North, taking the money, and lineage, with them. In quick time these mansions were also razed to make room for the new. There are in fact many photographs of mansions which became other mansions or Grand Hotels. Into this arena of inadvertant social mobility emerges the social conservatism of Ward MacAllister, commentator, arbiter and arranger of the social scene, and his social Boss, Mrs. Astor herself. MacAllister seems to have had a ruthless and iron grip but to have stumbled when he wrote a a Truman Capote-like expose of his social experiences called "Society as I have found it," dubbed by his jeerers "Society as it has found me out." Homberger doesn't treat MacAllister's rise and fall in narrative form, but constantly refers back to it, in fact he introduces us to MacAllister with his funeral. He also introduces us to Mrs. Astor, at the end of the book, with the end of her days, as a woman living in a mimicry haze of the past. Perhaps for this reason, the portrait of Mrs. Astor never quite takes off. One learns a few things about her life, but there don't seem to be any notable turning points, and there are only rare depictions of her actually interfering in society which is extremely strange. We never quite see her promoting, demoting or blocking entrance into the sacred class as much as we expect her to. About the last thing we see her do is make an exception for a friend who married a Jewish banker, because she likes her, but even that is anti-climactic. While, the book itself is fascinating in its depiction of New York, and the history of its founding elite, the main leader, Mrs. Astor, of the society emerges as nearly a phantom, almost an absence more than a presence. (If you're going to read about the cream, you may as well read about the dregs in Luc Sante's Low Life.)