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The Grandes Dames - The wonderfully uninhibited ladies who used their wealth & position to create American culture in their own images-from the Gilded Age to Modern Times (Paperback)
Loot Price: R350
Discovery Miles 3 500
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The Grandes Dames - The wonderfully uninhibited ladies who used their wealth & position to create American culture in their own images-from the Gilded Age to Modern Times (Paperback)
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Loot Price R350
Discovery Miles 3 500
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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Astor. Rockefeller. McCormick. Belmont. All family names that still
adorn buildings, streets and charity foundations. While the men
blazed across America with their oil, industry, and railways, the
matriarchs founded art museums, opera houses, and symphony houses
that functioned almost as private clubs. These women ruled American
society with a style and impact that make today's socialites seem
pale reflections of their forbears. Linked by money, marriage,
privilege, power and class, they formed a grand American matriarchy
that dominated the social and cultural life of the nation between
the 1870s and the Second World War. The Grandes Dames of America
knew just what they wanted and precisely how to get it, and when
faced with criticism, malice or jealousy, they would rise above
their detractors and usually persevere. Preeminent social historian
Stephen Birmingham takes us into the drawing rooms of these
powerful women, providing keen insights into aspects of an American
Society that no longer exists. Caroline Astor, when asked for her
fare boarding a street car, responded, "No thank you, I have my own
favorite charities." Edith "Effie" Stern decided that no existing
school would do for her child, so she had a new one built. And the
legendary Isabella Stewart Gardner replied to a contemporary who
was overly taken with their Mayflower ancestors: "Of course,
immigration laws are much more strict nowadays." These women had
looks, manner, and style, but more than that they had
presence-there was a sense that when one of them entered a room,
something momentous was about to occur. Birmingham opens a window
to the highest levels of American society with these eight profiles
of American "royalty".
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