Mrs. Astor's New York: Money and Social Power in a Gilded Age

Mrs. Astor, undisputed queen of New York society in the decades before the First World War, used her prestige to create a social aristocracy of unparalleled extravagance and exclusivity. Her story, which reads like a novel by Edith Wharton, sheds important new light on the origins, lifestyle, and social competitiveness of this aristocracy. 60 illustrations.