Reviews
"David Cannadine, our foremost historian of the British aristocracy, has painted a rich, full-length portrait, warts and all, of one of the most important plutocrats America has ever produced. It turns out the taciturn old conservative and master collector Mellon had an inner life as well as an amazing career, which Cannadine recreates with his usual thoroughness, humaneness, and wit." Sean Wilentz, Princeton University, author ofThe Rise of American Democracy: Jefferson to Lincoln "A commanding biography, unsparing in revelation, lively in its writing, rigorous in its scholarship, astute in its judgments, and altogether a major contribution to American history." Harold Evans, author,The American CenturyandThey Made America "In this engaging and entertaining biography, David Cannadine paints a sweeping, vivid portrait of Andrew Mellon, a man who shaped and symbolized critical decades in the American experience. A product of the Gilded Age and a crucial figure in the politically conservative Roaring Twenties, Mellon found himself under direct attack in the years of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal. Deeply researched and perceptively written, Cannadine's booka story of scandal and politics, commerce and charity, art and ambitionrescues Mellon from the mists of history with grace and skill." Jon Meacham, author,Franklin and Winston: An Intimate Portrait of an Epic Friendship "A marvelous biography of a formidable multi-millionaire lauded as 'the greatest secretary of the treasury since Alexander Hamilton.' Mellon's private life makes even livelier reading than his public career, and Cannadine's account of how Mellon acquired one of the greatest art collections in the world is compelling. The book should immediately became a frontrunner for the coming year's major book prizes." William E. Leuchtenburg, author,Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal "Mellonis an extraordinary life in the fullness of all its complexity and contradictionsof a man, a family, their associates, and of America from 1850 onward. An unvarnished portrait painted in the full light of day." Paul O'Neill, former Secretary of the Treasury "This is a beautifully written, thoroughly researched, and altogether engaging portrait of a pivotal figure who has never received the biographical treatment he so richly deserves. David Cannadine introduces us to Andrew Mellon as entrepreneur, family man, art collector, and politician and in so doing illuminates both a complex personal story and American society itself from the Gilded Age through the New Deal." Eric Foner, De Witt Clinton Professor of History at Columbia University, and author,Forever Free "Callil is both fascinated and repelled by [Darquier]. But this is more than his story. Callil also relates the sad fate of his daughter, Anne . . . [This] beautifully written work provides a frank and disturbing portrait of the rot that slowly ate away at French society both before and during the Occupation." Jay Freeman,Booklist(boxed and starred) "The bottomless corruption, political and personal, of French fascism is explored in this absorbing biography of one of its most loathsome figuresLouis Darquier . . . Callil sets Darquier's public career in an unsparing reconstruction of his sordid private life . . . Through her superbly written, meticulously researched, densely novelistic portrait of Darquier, Callil takes an uncommonly penetrating look at the malignity of fascism and the suffering of its many victims."