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Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Audiobook, by Anderson Cooper Play Audiobook Sample

Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Audiobook

Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty Audiobook, by Anderson Cooper Play Audiobook Sample
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Read By: Anderson Cooper Publisher: HarperAudio Listen Time: at 1.0x Speed 5.83 hours at 1.5x Speed 4.38 hours at 2.0x Speed Release Date: September 2021 Format: Unabridged Audiobook ISBN: 9780062964656

Quick Stats About this Audiobook

Total Audiobook Chapters:

22

Longest Chapter Length:

55:29 minutes

Shortest Chapter Length:

06 seconds

Average Chapter Length:

24:07 minutes

Audiobooks by this Author:

3

Other Audiobooks Written by Anderson Cooper: > View All...

Publisher Description

New York Times bestselling author and journalist Anderson Cooper teams with New York Times bestselling historian and novelist Katherine Howe to chronicle the rise and fall of a legendary American dynasty—his mother’s family, the Vanderbilts.

When eleven-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor 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 unrecognizable to the tycoon who started it all.

Now, 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.

Written with a unique insider’s viewpoint, this is a rollicking, quintessentially American history as remarkable as the family it so vividly captures.

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

Download and start listening now!

"There are not enough great things to be said about Anderson Cooper reading to you! Add a riveting story and this book and narrator are number 1!"

— Tampa Bay (5 out of 5 stars)

Quotes

  • “With resplendent detail, the authors capture the gasp-eliciting extravagance of the Vanderbilt Gilded Age mansions…a distinctly intimate, insightful, and engrossing chronicle.”

    — Booklist (starred review)
  • “Suicides, affairs, bad business deals, fierce rivalries, and occasionally an outburst of good sense mark these pages along with moments of tragedy, such as the loss of one ancestor in the sinking of the Lusitania. A sturdy family history that also serves as a pointed lesson in how to lose a fortune.”

    — Kirkus Reviews
  • “Marked by meticulous research and deep emotional insight, this is a memorable chronicle of American royalty.”

    — Publishers Weekly
  • “Rich in detail and personality, Vanderbilt beautifully transports readers back in time to the glory days of the Gilded Age, and the subsequent scandals, successes, and excesses of a true American dynasty.”

    — Amazon.com

Awards

  • A New York Times bestseller
  • A #1 Amazon bestseller
  • A Barnes & Noble bestseller
  • An Amazon Best Book of the Month
  • A New York Times Bestseller in Audio

Vanderbilt Listener Reviews

Overall Performance: 4.5 out of 54.5 out of 54.5 out of 54.5 out of 54.5 out of 5 (4.50)
5 Stars: 1
4 Stars: 1
3 Stars: 0
2 Stars: 0
1 Stars: 0
Narration: 5 out of 55 out of 55 out of 55 out of 55 out of 5 (5.00)
5 Stars: 2
4 Stars: 0
3 Stars: 0
2 Stars: 0
1 Stars: 0
Story: 4.5 out of 54.5 out of 54.5 out of 54.5 out of 54.5 out of 5 (4.50)
5 Stars: 1
4 Stars: 1
3 Stars: 0
2 Stars: 0
1 Stars: 0
Write a Review
  • Overall Performance: 4 out of 54 out of 54 out of 54 out of 54 out of 5 Narration Rating: 5 out of 55 out of 55 out of 55 out of 55 out of 5 Story Rating: 4 out of 54 out of 54 out of 54 out of 54 out of 5

    — CPO61, 10/12/2023
  • Overall Performance: 5 out of 55 out of 55 out of 55 out of 55 out of 5 Narration Rating: 5 out of 55 out of 55 out of 55 out of 55 out of 5 Story Rating: 5 out of 55 out of 55 out of 55 out of 55 out of 5

    — Colleen Kelly, 1/12/2022

About the Authors

Anderson Cooper is a journalist and television anchor who has won numerous major journalism awards for his work, including eighteen Emmy Awards, several Peabody Awards, and a Edward R. Murrow Award. He is the New York Times bestselling author of several books, including Dispatches form the Edge: A Memoir of War, Disasters, and Survival; The Rainbow Comes and Goes, Vanderbilt: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty, and Astor: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune.

Katherine Howe is the New York Times bestselling author of The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane, The House of Velvet and Glass, and Conversion. She hosted Salem: Unmasking the Devil for the National Geographic Channel, and her fiction has been translated into over twenty-five languages. A native Texan, she lives in New England and upstate New York, where she teaches at Cornell and is at work on her next novel.