Morgenthau
POWER, PRIVILEGE, AND THE RISE OF AN AMERICAN DYNASTY
by Andrew Meier
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice
A New Yorker Book of the Year
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Morgenthau
POWER, PRIVILEGE, AND THE RISE OF AN AMERICAN DYNASTY
A panoramic portrait of four generations of the Morgenthau family — a dynasty of power brokers and public officials with an outsized— and previously unmapped — influence extending from daily life in New York City to the shaping of the American Century.
After coming to America from Germany in 1866, the Morgenthaus made history in international diplomacy, in domestic politics, and in America’s criminal justice system. With unprecedented, exclusive access to family archives, award-winning journalist and biographer Andrew Meier vividly chronicles how the Morgenthaus amassed a fortune in Manhattan real estate, advised presidents, advanced the New Deal, exposed the Armenian genocide, rescued victims of the Holocaust, waged war in the Mediterranean and Pacific, and, from a foundation of private wealth, built a dynasty of public service. In the words of former mayor Ed Koch, they were “the closest we’ve got to royalty in New York City.”
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Lazarus Morgenthau arrived in America dreaming of rebuilding the fortune he had lost in his homeland. He ultimately died destitute, but the family would rise again with the ascendance of Henry, who became a wealthy and powerful real estate baron.
From there, the Morgenthaus went on to influence the most consequential presidency of the twentieth century, as Henry’s son Henry, Jr., became FDR’s longest-serving aide, his Treasury Secretary during the War, and his confidante of thirty years.
Finally, there was Robert Morgenthau, a decorated World War II hero who would become the longest-tenured district attorney in the history of New York City. Known as “DA for life,” he oversaw the most consequential and controversial prosecutions in New York of the last fifty years, from the war on the Mafia to the infamous Central Park Jogger case.
The saga of the Morgenthaus has lain half-hidden in the shadows for too long. At heart a family history, Morgenthau is also an American epic, as sprawling and surprising as the country itself.
Lazarus arrived in America on the cusp of the Gilded Age, dreaming of rebuilding the cigar fortune he had lost in Germany. Part dreamer, part inventor, he was a gambler at heart—a risk-taker who stirred scandal in the family and in society, dying destitute, in shame, and alone.
Henry Sr., forced to quit college, rose through the ranks as one of New York’s first real estate barons. At 55, he turned to politics, backing Woodrow Wilson’s White House run in 1912. As Ambassador to Turkey during WWI, he witnessed the Armenian genocide, officially decrying it as a “campaign of mass murder.”
Henry, Jr. became FDR’s longest-serving aide, his Treasury Secretary during WWII, and his confidante of 30 years. He helped arm Europe long before Pearl Harbor, raising billions to fuel America’s war effort. In his final triumph, he persuaded FDR to face the horrors of the Holocaust and try to save the remaining Jews of Europe.
Henry Morgenthau Jr. and his wife Ellie host Winston Churchill and the Roosevelts at the family farm in the summer of 1942, joined by their son Robert Morgenthau, on leave from war.
Born into privilege, Robert grew up riding horses with the Roosevelts and sailing with the Kennedys. Enlisting during college to fight Hitler, he narrowly survived 46 months at sea. Ultimately, he became the most influential prosecutor in U.S. history, serving first under Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and then, for four decades, as District Attorney of New York County, where he was known as “DA for Life.”
Advance Praise
“Morgenthau is a work of important and enduring history: from the making of New York, to the Greatest Generation, to surviving one of the toughest jobs in law and order: Manhattan DA. The Morgenthau name and the contributions of this historic family will endure forever.”
“Morgenthau is a magisterial book, cinematic in scope and dramatic in its pacing, a vivid retelling of critical domestic and world events over two centuries that is both gripping and illuminating. The book’s epilogue is a particularly poignant elegy to the limits of one man’s power and the sweep of one family’s American dream—as well as Meier’s own monumental accomplishment.”
“Journalist and biographer Meier draws on hundreds of hours of interviews and prodigious archival research to craft an absorbing narrative following four generations of one of America’s most prominent families.
A majestic, authoritative multigenerational saga.”
“An epic of vast scope and bravura research, drawing on a decade of digging to open a window into one of the twentieth century’s most influential families, and what its sprawling history can teach us about power and politics in America.”
“Meier’s narrative mixes political drama with colorful family melodrama. It’s also a vivid panorama of the New York that made the Morgenthaus…. The result is a fascinating family portrait on the grandest scale. ”
“Morgenthau is an epic, utterly absorbing portrait of an American family that has left an indelible imprint on the city of New York — and our country. Confidence men, diplomats, cabinet secretaries, New Dealers, developers of New York City, crime fighters, war heroes, Mob busters, power brokers, and advisers to presidents: You can’t tell the story of the last two centuries without also telling the story of the Morgenthau family. Thankfully, Andrew Meier has done exactly that, in remarkable, compelling prose.”
“This is the story of one of the great American dynasties. Andrew Meier tells it with zest, sensitivity, and an eye for both historical significance and revealing personal detail. Morgenthau is a lasting achievement.”
“Morgenthau is the rare writerly accomplishment that manages to tell a tale that is both epic and intimate. To trace the lives of four generations of Morgenthaus is to traverse much of the history of the post–Civil War American republic—and to be inspired once again by a mythical immigrant journey from the margins of society to the peaks of power, command, and consequential public service. Morgenthau is exhaustively researched, vividly written, and a welcome reminder that even the most noxious evils can be vanquished when capable and committed citizens do their best.”
“Andrew Meier’s engrossing history of the Morgenthau dynasty is about both a remarkable family and, as important, the rise of the United States to world power.”
“A gripping, deeply researched, and intimate saga of an American dynasty that is also a history of the United States, New York, and Jewish-American life though 150 years of the remarkable Morgenthau family.”
“Morgenthau has everything. It’s the intensely human story of four generations of an American family whose achievements, at home and overseas, have largely been forgotten until now, with a huge supporting cast that includes everyone from Woodrow Wilson, Franklin Roosevelt, and Robert Kennedy to Joe Bananas, Roy Cohn, and Donald Trump. Morgenthau is vividly written, deeply researched — and not to be missed.”
“You, like your family before you, have stood up time and time again to do the right thing — even in the face of formidable resistance.”
—Justice Sonia Sotomayor
to Robert Morgenthau at an early 100th birthday celebration