Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune

Analyze how the book portrays John Jacob Astor’s success and what made him so successful: hard work, good business sense, ruthlessness, or something else?

Cooper and Howe state at the end, “In some respects, we all already live in Astoria” (277). What do they mean? Using evidence from the text and other sources, build an argument linking US society to John Jacob Astor’s vision.

Caroline and Brooke Astor were famous as the doyennes (leaders) of high society in New York. Using evidence from the text and other sources, examine how they accomplished this and why it was so important to them.

The authors titled all of the book’s chapters after places, often property owned by the Astors. Why? How do place and property shape the Astor story and especially the Astor identity?

Cooper and Howe write that “money had wreaked its inexorable influence” (215) in explaining the Astors’ unhappy family life. Using textual evidence, analyze one or more of the toxic family squabbles that troubled the Astors. Did wealth cause (or contribute to) the problem(s)? If so, how?

As the book progresses, newspapers play an increasingly major role in the Astors’ image, and news stories often provide the framework for later chapters (as, for example, in Insley’s reporting, the John Garvin affair, the Titanic, and the Tony Marshall trial). Focusing on one or more of these instances, analyze how the media influenced the history of the Astor family.

The authors assert, “We are all living in a Second Gilded Age” (278). What do they mean? Research and analyze similarities between the “Gilded Age” and the modern era, considering issues such as the wealth gap and the perception of elite excess.

Analyze the book’s portrait of the Astor family. Does it portray them as typical of the upper class or as somehow unique? Explain, citing textual evidence.