The Warburgs

From the Pulitzer Prize–winning bestselling author of Alexander Hamilton, the inspiration for the hit Broadway musical, comes this definitive biography of the Warburgs, one of the great German-Jewish banking families of the twentieth century.
Bankers, philanthropists, scholars, socialites, artists, and politicians, the Warburgs stood at the pinnacle of German (and, later, of German-American) Jewry. They forged economic dynasties, built mansions and estates, assembled libraries, endowed charities, and advised a German kaiser and two American presidents. But their very success made the Warburgs lightning rods for anti-Semitism, and their sense of patriotism became increasingly dangerous in a Germany that had declared Jews the enemy.
Ron Chernow's hugely fascinating history is a group portrait of a clan whose members were renowned for their brilliance, culture, and personal energy yet tragically vulnerable to the dark and irrational currents of the twentieth century.
**Amazon.com Review
All three of Ron Chernow's books are lengthy and solidly researched, but his background as a journalist shows in his ability here to convey complex material in terms of vivid characters and a well-defined theme. As in his National Book Award-winning business history (The House of Morgan) and his comprehensive biography of John D. Rockefeller (Titan), in The Warburgs Chernow employs marvelously detailed material to trace a single overarching story: the riveting and ultimately tragic odyssey of German Jews. The Warburgs were Hamburg's preeminent banking family from the 18th century until Hitler's Third Reich forced them to hand over their business to Aryans in 1938. But they also boasted among their family members a celebrated art historian (Aby Warburg), a Nobel Prize-winning scientist (Otto Warburg), and the financial angel of the New York City Ballet (Edward Warburg). Two of the "Famous Five" brothers married American women at the turn of the 20th century and became honored members of the Wall Street establishment, so Chernow's lively narrative imparts important U.S. social and economic history as well. But don't let all those fancy credentials intimidate you: The Warburgs features enough flamboyant personalities and high-class gossip to make this as entertaining a read as the latest issue of People magazine. --Wendy Smith
From Publishers Weekly
In chronicling "the oldest continuously active banking family in the world," Chernow ( The House of Morgan ) tells a rich, sprawling story of personality, commerce and history. From their origins as 16th-Century "Court Jews" in North Germany, the Warburg family and its business rose with the unification of Germany and the expanding global economy; two sons married into New York City's German-Jewish "Our Crowd." Both in Germany and in the United States, the Warburgs maintained the "Panglossian" outlook of loyalty to country and religion; Kris tall nacht finally pushed them from their bank and from their Hamburg base into the Diaspora. The book encompasses the Warburgs' role in Anglo-American World War II spying, the establishment of a family securities firm in Great Britain and the postwar return of the Warburgs to Hamburg. Granted access to family files, Chernow shifts between continents, telling of many lives with depth and detail. So many mini-biographies, however, sometimes obscure the author's stated goal of limning the evolution of German Jewry through the Warburgs. Photos not seen by PW. Author tour.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.