A Season of Splendor: The Court of Mrs. Astor in Gilded Age New York

This interesting read tells of a time around the early 1900's when New York was becoming the glittering social mecca of America. New York was the very center of finance, business, and culture. Caroline Astor used her family's name and her husband's millions to help forge the Gilded Age society.

Very discriptive of the era. A view into the world of yesteryear. great that it has Dollar comparisons to today's value of the money spent in this era. Amazing!

"The Gilded Age" was a term coined by Mark Twain to describe that period of time when conspicuous consumption was assumed, and the rich spent fortunes outdoing each other. Beginning in the years after the Civil War, it was a period of unrest in the upper social circles of New York as the old money families found themselves pressed by the new money made in manufacturing, shipping, and stock trading. The names became synonymous with wealth, high society and excess - Astor, Vanderbilt, Belmont, Carnegie, and Rockefeller. The center of this wealth and influence was New York City; the queen of it all, Caroline Astor, and her court the 400 Families. /A Season of Spendor/ is more than just a survey of the people and personalities, but also the societal costs resulting from just how conspicuous that consumption was, one easy result being the Federal Income tax: highly graduated against the wealthy. King has put some excellent scholarship into this book, and his notes, bibliography, and index are almost 50 pages, providing anyone interested in further research plenty of sources. As we again have a period of excessive growth in millionaires, newly minted rubbing elbows with the new-old money, and excess being celebrated on many "reality" TV shows, one can see some of the cautionary parallels in this new "Gilded Age."

Overall this book provides an excellent summary of the Gilded Age in America, from its inception coinciding with the end of the Civil War and birth of the Industrial Revolution, through to its twilight years, corresponding with the sinking of the Titanic. The book focuses heavily on the wealthy residents of New York City (particularly the Astor and Vanderbilt families) and the world they inhabited. While not encyclopedic (e.g., there's hardly any discussion about how the Gilded Age played out in areas outside of NYC), the author does a fantastic job of pulling together previously-published accounts of the Gilded Age together with a good deal of newer, more detailed facts and anecdotes to enhance the overall story. The chapters are relatively short which makes this thick book very approachable, while the very detailed bibliography and corresponding references accompanying each chapter are highly useful for those seeking additional detail, and give the book an almost textbook-like feel. Additionally, the author factors in some insightful social-history commentary on the ramifications of all this excess (e.g., public outcry, institution of the Federal Income Tax). The parallels to the world we live in today (2008) are also interesting food for thought. My only criticisms are (i) at times the descriptions are overly exhaustive and (ii) although there are a few black & white photographs, IMO the stories would have been significantly enhanced by color photos depicting some of the opulence the author goes to great pains to describe. Nonetheless, this is a five-star read.

As the other review states, this book doesn't contain any new scholarship, however, King does an excellent and thorough job of recreating the period of American and New York history between the years 1880 and 1914. For those who have only a passing familiarity with the names Astor, Vanderbilt or Belmont, the fiction of Edith Wharton, and America's 19th century aristocracy, A SEASON OF SPLENDOR is a great starting place for research. Once you've consumed the bevy of names, fortunes and scandals this book entails, the bibliography is an even greater resource, since most of the books listed are available in your local library--though you may feel sated by King's unerring eye for detail. I highly recommend this book, as well as King's other works of social history.