A portrait of a great American dynasty and its legacy in business,
technology, the arts, and philanthropyMeyer Guggenheim, a Swiss
immigrant, founded a great American business dynasty. At their peak
in the early twentieth century, the Guggenheims were reckoned among
America's wealthiest, and the richest Jewish family in the world
after the Rothschilds. They belonged to Our Crowd, that tight
social circle of New York Jewish plutocrats, but unlike the others
-- primarily merchants and financiers -- they made their money by
extracting and refining copper, silver, lead, tin, and gold.The
secret of their success, the patriarch believed, was their unity,
and in the early years Meyer's seven sons, under the leadership of
Daniel, worked as one to expand their growing mining and smelting
empire. Family solidarity eventually decayed (along with their
Jewish faith), but even more damaging was the paucity of male heirs
as Meyer and the original set of brothers passed from the scene.In
the third generation, Harry Guggenheim, Daniel's son, took over
leadership and made the family a force in aviation, publishing, and
horse-racing. He desperately sought a successor but tragically
failed and was forced to watch as the great Guggenheim business
enterprise crumbled.Meanwhile, "Guggenheim" came to mean art more
than industry. In the mid-twentieth century, led by Meyer's son
Solomon and Solomon's niece Peggy, the Guggenheims became the
agents of modernism in the visual arts. Peggy, in America during
the war years, midwifed the school of abstract expressionism, which
brought art leadership to New York City. Solomon's museum has been
innovative in spreading the riches of Western art around the world.
After the generation of Harry and Peggy, the family has continued
to produce many accomplished members, such as publisher Roger
Straus II and archaeologist Iris Love.In The Guggenheims, through
meticulous research and absorbing prose, Irwin Unger, the winner of
a Pulitzer Prize in history, and his wife, Debi Unger, convey a
unique and remarkable story -- epic in its scope -- of one family's
amazing rise to prominence.
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