Mrs. Astor's New York
Subtitle: money and social power in a Gilded Age
By: Eric Homberger.
Publisher: Yale University Press
Published: 2002
Place of publication: New Haven
Language: eng
Number of pages: 330
Subjects: Astor, Caroline Schermerhorn, 1830-1908; Aristocracy (Social class) -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 19th century; Rich people -- New York (State) -- New York -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; Rich people -- New York (State) -- New York -- Biography; Wealth -- Social aspects -- New York (State) -- New York -- History -- 19th century; New York (N.Y.) -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; New York (N.Y.) -- History -- 1865-1898; New York (N.Y.) -- Biography
Genres: Biography.
Description: "Mrs. Astor, undisputed queen of New York society in the decades before the First World War, used her prestige to create a social aristocracy in the city; an invitation to one of her parties was a coveted mark of social acceptance, and exclusion meant social banishment. Mrs.

Astor's story, which reads like a novel by Edith Wharton, sheds important new light on the origins, extravagant lifestyle, and social competitiveness of this aristocracy, and it is told here with vigor and elegance by Eric Homberger.".

"Homberger argues that the arrival in New York of a tidal wave of new wealth after the Civil War pushed the city's old families into a redefinition of the practices and responsibilities of aristocracy. The public wanted to know more about the neighborhoods, clothes, marriages, entertainments, scandals, and divorces of the wealthy, so during the 1880s, Mrs. Astor presided over a revolution in their social visibility.

With Ward McAllister she created the Patriarchs, whose annual balls were the most sought after social events of the era. She also established the "Four Hundred," the definitive list of the socially acceptable, ordaining which families could be accepted and which must remain in social exclusion. Homberger describes the festivities of this social elite, their homes and neighborhoods, and their social struggles.

His diverting account of lives of discreet and not-so-discreet excess vividly recaptures New York's high society and shows how its members were transformed into America's first celebrities."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 312-320) and index.
Maps on lining papers.
Table of contents: title: Looking at aristocracy; title: The art of social climbing; title: Aristocratic neighborhoods; title: Going to the ball; title: Ward McAllister; title: Being Mrs. Astor.