Enormously enjoyable history of the great New York Jewish families, who rose from poverty and obscurity to incredible wealth and power. This detailed and meticulously researched group biography explores the origins of the Sachs, Guggenheim, Goldman and Lehman families, amongst others, and shows how their hard work and diligence paid off as they founded the dynasties and businesses that in many cases survive into our own times, and whose names are still well known. It's an ambitious book, with a lot of material and a vast scope and it’s sometimes difficult to keep track of all the many characters that people it, but I found it worth the effort and I very much enjoyed learning about all these families.

I so wanted to love this book, but it read like a college term paper. I felt as though the families chosen were not the most exciting, and there were so many more that the author could have included. Disappointing, but still interesting from the perspective of learning about the earlier days of Jewish immigrants in America