Fortune's Children by Arthur T. Vanderbilt 2nd Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Fortune's Children
Book Review: Lot's of interesting information.
Summary: 5 Stars
The book is a time-line of the rise and fall of one of America's dynasties. The squandering of their great wealth was amazing. It bears similarity with today's rich families who forbid their teenagers from working. This scenario is destined to be repeated in the near future by a host of wealthy families. The author has a legal education and even authored an introduction to the law. In spite of this, he manages to be genuinely intelligent and well organized in his material. It is quite detailed and worth the read. This book is available in other editions for a far more reasonable price, such as $8.Book Review: Neo-Cons and Especially Cheney Should Take Heed of the Vanderbilt Past
Summary: 5 Stars
A decided warning is given to present-day Neo-cons by Arthur T. Vanderbilt II in his book, FORTUNE'S CHILDREN. That warning, Don't Lose Your Soul for Money and Power, seems lost on the likes of Cheney, Bush, Libby, Rice and the military-oil-industrial complex that run the United States today.
FORTUNE'S CHILDREN depicts what happens when your heart is over-ruled by grasping greed and conspicuous consumption. The original Vanderbilt, the Commodore, mistreats his children and lives a money-grubbing life like Dickens' Scrooge, and uses nicknames to control his children (Sound familiar, quasi-President Bush?)
After the Commodore's death, most of the remaining Vanderbilts use their power and money to build huge pleasure palaces in Manhattan, Newport and in other posh spots, with their wives often dominating their husbands' lives, spending their money on foolish "high-society balls" and ignoring or micro-mis-managing their own children.
Forgetting that their own lives allowed them freedom, many of the Vanderbilt wives manipulate their children, fixing their marriages, allowing them little freedom of thought, and censoring their outside communication with the world. The domestically-weak Vanderbilt men hide away on pleasure ships, devote themselves only to business and often adopt a cold attitude toward their offspring that mimics the mean and cruel Commodore.
Dick Cheney, our real president, might see himself in these pages, as he runs a secret-happy administration, allows no-bid contracts on work in Iraq, leaks damaging information on his enemies and an innocent CIA agent, and stiffens his face into that horrible scowl.
Dick, you should know your power can't last. Why don't you take your health problems to heart and realize what Vanderbilt (and God) is telling you?
Dick, you can't take it with you.
by Larry Rochelle, author of ARROW, HOME SCHOOLED and TEN MILE CREEK.
Book Review: Remarkable time in history
Summary: 4 Stars
If every member of every other wealthy family of the past, present, and future were kind, happy, well-adjusted human beings this family alone would provide ample reason for average people to distrust, dislike, and shake their heads in disgust at the filthy rich.
One man who loved making money made a whole lot of it--more than any other American ever had. He left most of his fortune to one son who managed to increase it beyond his father's wildest dreams. The children and grandchildren and great-grandchildren then burned through the world's largest fortune with amazing skill and speed.
The scale of the homes and lifestyles of these people is simply unimaginable. With few exceptions, their personalities seemed to be without virtue. They entertained lavishly--not because they cared about their friends and wanted to share their hospitality--but to flaunt their wealth and power.
The commodore did donate money to start Vanderbilt University. But he didn't really do it out of concern for the education of future generations. His wife talked him into donating the money to start a university as a monument to himself. She thought a university would be more tasteful and less embarrassing than the massive statue of himself her husband had in mind. His one and only gift to the university was only one million dollars.
One of the most intesting things about this book is seeing how the monumental mansions they built for themselves became useless monstrosities. A home Alva Vanderbilt spent millions to construct was sold for $100,000. Most of the mansions were razed.
The book is a fascinating peek at an amazing time period of American history.
Book Review: Subject Matter Not So Exciting for an Actual Vanderbilt
Summary: 3 Stars
I am a great-grandson of William K Vanderbilt Jr. and I must say I don't find all of these books about my relatives particularly fascinating. It is interesting though that the fortune was largely gone within a century and that my more well-to-do relatives are such because of my other family side's prudent investing (my grandmother's family), rather than inheriting great Vanderbilt wealth, they inherited decent sums (certainly fortunes but nothing like the Vanderbilt ones) and have played wisely over the years, rather than spending their wealth like fiends.Book Review: The authoritative work
Summary: 4 Stars
This book is the authoritative work on the Vanderbilt family. If you're interested in the Gilded Age in America, this book is a wonderful way to start- it details the history of one of America's leading families during the Industrial Revolution. The first few chapters are somewhat tedious, but once you get past that, you feel whipped up into the frenzy of wealth the Vanderbilt descendants must have felt. The book details how the Vanderbilts made their money, the scandals that shook the fabric of their family, the incredible ways they spent the money, and their (in some cases) spectacular fall when they ran out of cash.