{"title":"Anderson Cooper","description":"\u003cp\u003eAnderson Cooper’s works delve into the intricate histories of some of America’s most influential families, exploring the highs and lows of wealth and power with meticulous research and engaging narrative. Readers can expect richly detailed biographies that capture the complexities behind legendary fortunes and dynastic legacies.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBlending elements of \u003cem\u003eBiography \u0026amp; Memoir\u003c\/em\u003e with sweeping \u003cem\u003eHistory \u0026amp; Military\u003c\/em\u003e themes, Cooper’s books offer a compelling look at the personal and public dramas that have shaped American society through the lens of its iconic families.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"vanderbilt","title":"Vanderbilt","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eVanderbilt\u003c\/em\u003e by CNN anchor and journalist Anderson Cooper and historian and novelist Katherine Howe is a captivating exploration of the rise and fall of one of America's most legendary dynasties. The book starts with the humble beginnings of eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt, who worked on his father's modest boat ferrying supplies across New York Harbor in the early 19th century. Through sheer ruthlessness, cunning, and an unquenchable thirst for wealth, Cornelius—later known as \"the Commodore\"—built two immense empires, one in shipping and the other in railroads, amassing a fortune that made him the richest man in America.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThis staggering fortune created a legacy that would stir familial discord for generations. Upon Cornelius's death in 1877, his heirs battled over the riches that seemed both a blessing and a curse. Cornelius’s son Billy managed to double the inheritance, but subsequent generations found increasingly extravagant ways to squander their wealth. By 2018, the last of the Vanderbilts were forced out of The Breakers, a seventy-room summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, emblematic of the family's former grandeur. By this point, the family would have been unrecognizable to the tenacious tycoon who started it all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eAnderson Cooper, the Commodore’s great-great-great-grandson, collaborates with Katherine Howe to bring the vivid saga of the Vanderbilt family to life. Together, they offer a nuanced perspective on the ancestors who built the family empire and those who indulged in its luxuries. Through a meticulous narrative that swings from the gritty wharves of old Manhattan to the opulent drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, the book also transports readers to the European courts and modern-day New York. Each setting provides a backdrop for the family's unrivalled drama of triumphs and tragedies, wealth and decay.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe authors provide an insider’s viewpoint, painting an intimate portrait of a family whose name became synonymous with American high society and insatiable capitalism. With Cooper's personal connection to the story and Howe's historical expertise, their portrayal is both richly detailed and keenly insightful. They wryly comment on the excesses and pitfalls that turned a hardworking lineage into a symbol of opulence and relentless ambition.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWritten with wit and thorough research, \u003cem\u003eVanderbilt\u003c\/em\u003e is a rollicking and quintessentially American tale that captures the essence of a family and an era. It is as remarkable as the Vanderbilt dynasty itself, offering readers an engrossing narrative that spans from the Gilded Age's glory to the present day.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45687223058668,"sku":"9780062964625","price":29.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780062964625.jpg?v=1725475379"},{"product_id":"astor-by-anderson-cooper-9780062964700","title":"Astor","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA NPR Best Book of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe number one \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling authors of \u003cem\u003eVanderbilt\u003c\/em\u003e return with another riveting history of a legendary American family, the Astors, and how they built and lavished their fortune.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe story of the Astors is a quintessentially American story—of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New York society and inserted themselves into political and cultural life, but also suffered the most famous loss on the \u003cem\u003eTitanic\u003c\/em\u003e, one of many shocking and unexpected twists in the family’s story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this unconventional, page-turning historical biography, featuring black-and-white and color photographs, #1 \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling authors Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors and explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America—offering a window onto the making of America itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Arotahi Agency","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46497345110252,"sku":"9780062964700","price":75.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/10851103482210.jpg?v=1748517399"},{"product_id":"vanderbilt-by-anderson-cooper-9780062964618","title":"Vanderbilt","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eCNN anchor and \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling author Anderson Cooper teams with \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty—his mother's family, the Vanderbilts.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFew names are as synonymous with wealth and glamour as \u003cem\u003eVanderbilt\u003c\/em\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen Cornelius Vanderbilt, the teenaged son of a ferryman in New York Harbor who was born at the end of the eighteenth century, decided to go into business on his own, few would have believed that within six decades he would epitomise American wealth, becoming the magnate of a shipping and railroad empire that made him the richest man in the country.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn the wake of his death in 1877, Cornelius's heirs bitterly fought over his estate, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. The generations of Vanderbilts who followed lived lives of unimaginable excess, steeped in tides of success and failure. By 2018, when the last Vanderbilt left the Breakers—the summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, his grandson and namesake Cornelius Vanderbilt II built—the family would have been unrecognisable to the Commodore.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNow, the Commodore's great-great-great-grandson, Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their remarkable influence. Cooper and Howe breathe life into the ancestors who built the family's empire, basked in the Commodore's wealth, hosted lavish galas, and became synonymous with unfettered American capitalism and high society. Moving from the hardscrabble wharves of Staten Island to the lavish drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, from the ornate summer palaces of Newport to the courts of Europe, Cooper and Howe wryly recount the triumphs and tragedies of an American family unlike any other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eDrawing on never-before-seen documents and told from a unique insider's viewpoint, this is a rollicking, quintessentially American history as remarkable as the family it so vividly captures.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Arotahi Agency","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46505596453100,"sku":"9780062964618","price":73.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/10850283482210.jpg?v=1748676398"},{"product_id":"astor-by-anderson-cooper-9780063359314","title":"Astor","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA NPR Best Book of the Year\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eThe number one \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling authors of \u003cem\u003eVanderbilt\u003c\/em\u003e return with another riveting history of a legendary American family, the Astors, and how they built and lavished their fortune.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe story of the Astors is a quintessentially American story—of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eFrom 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New York society and inserted themselves into political and cultural life, but also suffered the most famous loss on the \u003cem\u003eTitanic,\u003c\/em\u003e one of many shocking and unexpected twists in the family’s story.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eIn this unconventional, page-turning historical biography, featuring black-and-white and color photographs, #1 \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling authors Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors and explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America—offering a window onto the making of America itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"HarperCollins New Zealand","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46825501655276,"sku":"9780063359314","price":39.99,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/14797243482210.jpg?v=1758102917"},{"product_id":"vanderbilt-the-rise-and-fall-of-an-american-dynasty-large-print-by-katherine-howe-9780063118324","title":"Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty [Large Print]","description":"\u003cdiv class=\"book-description\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e\u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with \u003cem\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/em\u003e bestselling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty—his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts.\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eOne of the \u003cem\u003eWashington Post\u003c\/em\u003e's Notable Works of Nonfiction of 2021\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhen eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbour at the beginning of the nineteenth century, no one could have imagined that one day he would, through ruthlessness, cunning, and a pathological desire for money, build two empires—one in shipping and another in railroads—that would make him the richest man in America. His staggering fortune was fought over by his heirs after his death in 1877, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. Though his son Billy doubled the money left by “the Commodore,” subsequent generations competed to find new and ever more extraordinary ways of spending it. By 2018, when the last Vanderbilt was forced out of The Breakers—the seventy-room summer estate in Newport, Rhode Island, that Cornelius’s grandson and namesake had built—the family would have been unrecognisable to the tycoon who started it all.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eNow, the Commodore’s great-great-great-grandson Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their outsized influence. Cooper and Howe breathe life into the ancestors who built the family’s empire, basked in the Commodore’s wealth, hosted lavish galas, and became synonymous with unfettered American capitalism and high society. Moving from the hardscrabble wharves of old Manhattan to the lavish drawing rooms of Gilded Age Fifth Avenue, from the ornate summer palaces of Newport to the courts of Europe, and all the way to modern-day New York, Cooper and Howe wryly recount the triumphs and tragedies of an American dynasty unlike any other.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWritten with a unique insider’s viewpoint, this is a rollicking, quintessentially American history as remarkable as the family it so vividly captures. \u003cem\u003eVanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty [Large Print]\u003c\/em\u003e is a captivating account of ambition, wealth, and the indelible mark of a family on American society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Arotahi Agency","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47648156909804,"sku":"9780063118324","price":73.0,"currency_code":"NZD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0705\/7784\/8556\/files\/9780063118324-vanderbilt-the-rise-and-fall-of-an-american-dynasty-large-print.jpg?v=1779250700"}],"url":"https:\/\/bookhero.pro\/collections\/anderson-cooper.oembed","provider":"Book Hero","version":"1.0","type":"link"}