When the Astors Owned New York

Endowed with the largest private fortunes of their day, cousins John Jacob Astor IV and William Waldorf Astor lived incomparably privileged lives in the blaze of public attention. For three decades around the turn of the century, they vied for dominance of high society, creating the grandest hotels the world had ever seen - perfect fusions of excess and efficiency that became America's castles of capitalism. In this fascinating anecdotal history, Pulitzer Prize winner Justin Kaplan reacquaints us with the men whose palaces gave us the chafing dish, the velvet rope, and the standards of luxury and fashion that preoccupy us to this day.