The Guggenheims: A Family History - download pdf or read online

By Debi Unger, Irwin Unger

ISBN-10: 006093400X

ISBN-13: 9780060934002

ISBN-10: 0061350524

ISBN-13: 9780061350528

A portrait of an excellent American dynasty and its legacy in enterprise, expertise, the humanities, and philanthropy Meyer Guggenheim, a Swiss immigrant, based an outstanding American company dynasty. At their height within the early 20th century, the Guggenheims have been reckoned between America's wealthiest, and the richest Jewish relations on the earth after the Rothschilds. They belonged to Our Crowd, that tight social circle of latest York Jewish plutocrats, yet not like the others -- essentially retailers and financiers -- they made their cash by way of extracting and refining copper, silver, lead, tin, and gold. the key in their luck, the patriarch believed, was once their cohesion, and within the early years Meyer's seven sons, lower than the management of Daniel, labored as one to extend their transforming into mining and smelting empire. relations unity finally decayed (along with their Jewish faith), yet much more destructive used to be the paucity of male heirs as Meyer and the unique set of brothers handed from the scene. within the 3rd new release, Harry Guggenheim, Daniel's son, took over management and made the relatives a strength in aviation, publishing, and horse-racing. He desperately sought a successor yet tragically failed and used to be compelled to monitor because the nice Guggenheim agency crumbled. in the meantime, "Guggenheim" got here to intend paintings greater than undefined. within the mid-twentieth century, led by way of Meyer's son Solomon and Solomon's niece Peggy, the Guggenheims turned the brokers of modernism within the visible arts. Peggy, in the United States throughout the warfare years, midwifed the varsity of summary expressionism, which introduced artwork management to ny urban. Solomon's museum has been leading edge in spreading the riches of Western paintings worldwide. After the new release of Harry and Peggy, the relations has persevered to supply many comprehensive individuals, reminiscent of writer Roger Straus II and archaeologist Iris Love. within the Guggenheims, via meticulous study and soaking up prose, Irwin Unger, the winner of a Pulitzer Prize in background, and his spouse, Debi Unger, exhibit a distinct and noteworthy tale -- epic in its scope -- of 1 family's awesome upward thrust to prominence.

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The rich soon replaced gas with electricity to light their mansions, and by 1900, though the working class continued to use gas mantles or even kerosene lamps, many middle-class householders had adopted the electric light. In 1889 the first electric elevators appeared, making feasible the new “skyscrapers” poking up all over lower Manhattan. HE 50 THE GUGGENHEIMS The city was becoming a cultural powerhouse as well. In 1880 President Rutherford Hayes dedicated the new red-brick building of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Guggenheims’ exceptional situation did not endear them to other smelter owners. In the summer of 1893 Simon was present at the mine and smelter owners meeting at Denver’s Brown Palace Hotel, called to concert action to stem the downward trajectory of the metals industry. “The reduction of the price of silver to about 70 cents has shut down 99 percent of the silver mines of this country and the smelters must 48 THE GUGGENHEIMS soon follow their example,” the operators declared. 20 A majority of the delegates recommended closing down the smelters to wait for an upturn of prices.

The mines and the smelter, the property of the sons, were separate enterprises. Y. and the Minnie behind the smelter to get his sons over the hard transition. “This offer to toss them into the scales in their support allayed the panic . . 14 Meyer’s paternal reassurances had worked wonders in stiffening the sons’ resolve. But still success was delayed. In 1889 William graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and that summer he went to Pueblo to work under Holden as foreman of the yards, a job that entailed supervising the storage and distribution of ores, limestone, coal, coke, and lumber.

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The Guggenheims: A Family History by Debi Unger, Irwin Unger


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