The number one New York Timesbestselling authors of Vanderbiltreturn with anotherriveting history ofa legendary American family, the Astors, and how they built and lavished their fortune. The story of the Astorsis a quintessentially American storyof ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention.From 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astors son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society.The familyfortune, first madebyabeaver trapping business that grew into an empire, wasthen amplified by holdings in Manhattanreal estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astorsruled Gilded Age New York societyandinserted themselves into political and cultural life, but also suffered the mostfamous loss on the Titanic, one ofmany shocking and unexpected twists inthe familys story.In this unconventional, page-turninghistorical biography, featuring black-and-white and color photographs, #1New York Timesbestselling authors Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howechronicle the lives of the Astorsand explore what the Astor name has come to mean in Americaoffering a window onto the making of America itself.