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thewilcox's review against another edition
3.0
Very well written and researched book about a fascinating family. However I have to agree with other reviewers who have said it’s very hard to keep track of who is who in such a large family.
darwin8u's review against another edition
4.0
"It was the Warburg's good fortune that whenever we were about to get very rich something would happen and we became poor and had to start over again."
- Siegmund W. Warburg, quoted in Ron Chernow's 'The Warburgs'
Working in finance, the Warburg name wasn't unknown to me, but it never carried the same cachet as the Rothchilds, the Morgans, the Rockefellers, or the Medicis. Part of this is certainy geography. Being American, I've had more exposure to the myths and the institutions created by the Rockefellers and the Morgans (the Mellons and the Goldman-Sachs). But it was more than that. The Warburg family and banking stretched over multiple generations and dynasties. It also peaked right before the Nazis came into power, so the Warburgs faced a large amount of antisemetism (like almost all European Jews) during the late 19th and first half of the 20th century.
It is bold of Chernow to take on this family history. It is a big thesis. And it is a difficult task to write a compelling family history framed around banking and Germany and Nazis and not create a hot mess of a book. At times, I felt this book was falling into a hot mess. It spread out, banks fractured, families squabbled, and for a couple hundred pages the book was a chore. But, ultimately, Chernow almost pulled it off. I was fascinated by characters like Aby, Max, Paul, Felix and Fritz Warburg (the Mittleweg Warburgs). Sometimes, I felt as if each of the brothers carried a characteristic or passion I could relate to. Most of the attention of the book is spent on brothers who bank (the exception being Aby, the art Historian and rabid book collector), so the sisters while addressed, get a smaller role. Later, as the Warburg banking empire starts to rebuild, attention is spent on cousins Eric, Paul, and James (Mittleweg Warburgs), and Sir Siegmund Warburg (Alsterufer Warburgs). By this time, the Warburg families have spread mostly out of Germany to America, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc. But like with the previous generation of Warburg men, I found characteristics of these dynamic men that I could relate to. They were all different, often difficult and driven, but fascinating.
Chernow writes primarily about banking families and American biographies:
Chernow's Banking Dynasties:
1. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. - ★★★★
2. The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance - ★★★★
3. The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family - ★★★★
Chernow's American Political Biographies:
1. Alexander Hamilton - ★★★★★
2. Washington: A Life - ★★★★★
3. Grant - ★★★★★
Upon reviewing my reviews, I'm convinced Chernow does slightly better at writing histories of individuals rather than families; politics rather than finance. However, I should note, I've enjoyed ALL of his books and he's a master at his craft.
- Siegmund W. Warburg, quoted in Ron Chernow's 'The Warburgs'
Working in finance, the Warburg name wasn't unknown to me, but it never carried the same cachet as the Rothchilds, the Morgans, the Rockefellers, or the Medicis. Part of this is certainy geography. Being American, I've had more exposure to the myths and the institutions created by the Rockefellers and the Morgans (the Mellons and the Goldman-Sachs). But it was more than that. The Warburg family and banking stretched over multiple generations and dynasties. It also peaked right before the Nazis came into power, so the Warburgs faced a large amount of antisemetism (like almost all European Jews) during the late 19th and first half of the 20th century.
It is bold of Chernow to take on this family history. It is a big thesis. And it is a difficult task to write a compelling family history framed around banking and Germany and Nazis and not create a hot mess of a book. At times, I felt this book was falling into a hot mess. It spread out, banks fractured, families squabbled, and for a couple hundred pages the book was a chore. But, ultimately, Chernow almost pulled it off. I was fascinated by characters like Aby, Max, Paul, Felix and Fritz Warburg (the Mittleweg Warburgs). Sometimes, I felt as if each of the brothers carried a characteristic or passion I could relate to. Most of the attention of the book is spent on brothers who bank (the exception being Aby, the art Historian and rabid book collector), so the sisters while addressed, get a smaller role. Later, as the Warburg banking empire starts to rebuild, attention is spent on cousins Eric, Paul, and James (Mittleweg Warburgs), and Sir Siegmund Warburg (Alsterufer Warburgs). By this time, the Warburg families have spread mostly out of Germany to America, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands, etc. But like with the previous generation of Warburg men, I found characteristics of these dynamic men that I could relate to. They were all different, often difficult and driven, but fascinating.
Chernow writes primarily about banking families and American biographies:
Chernow's Banking Dynasties:
1. Titan: The Life of John D. Rockefeller, Sr. - ★★★★
2. The House of Morgan: An American Banking Dynasty and the Rise of Modern Finance - ★★★★
3. The Warburgs: The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family - ★★★★
Chernow's American Political Biographies:
1. Alexander Hamilton - ★★★★★
2. Washington: A Life - ★★★★★
3. Grant - ★★★★★
Upon reviewing my reviews, I'm convinced Chernow does slightly better at writing histories of individuals rather than families; politics rather than finance. However, I should note, I've enjoyed ALL of his books and he's a master at his craft.
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