After coming from Germany in 1866, the Morgenthaus established a powerful dynasty in the United States. With unprecedented, exclusive access to family archives, award-winning journalist and biographer Andrew Meier vividly chronicles how they amassed a fortune in Manhattan realty, advised presidents, advanced the New Deal, exposed the Armenian genocide, rescued victims of the Holocaust, waged war in the Mediterranean and Pacific, and, using their foundation of private wealth, became a multi-generational force in local, state, and national government. In the words of former mayor Ed Koch, they were “the closest we’ve got to royalty in New York City.” Hailed as “epic and intimate” (David M. Kennedy), “gripping and illuminating” (Fiona Hill), “a lasting achievement” (Adam Hochschild), and “utterly absorbing” (Gay Talese), Morgenthau: Power, Privilege, and the Rise of an American Dynasty captures it all.

Susie J. Pak, author of Gentlemen Bankers: The World of J. P. Morgan, joins in conversation.