Kennedy Wives: Triumph and Tragedy in America's Most Public Family

The Kennedy Women: The Saga of an American Family

Laurence Leamer · 946 pages

Monumental in scope and extraordinary in sensitivity, The Kennedy Women chronicles five matrilineal generations in our nation's premier political dynasty. Not merely distinguished cultural history, it is a story of epic sweep, brimming with triumph and tragedy, courage and compliance, self-sacrifice and self-delusion. Moving from steerage on an immigrant vessel to the slums of Boston, from the Co

The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy

David Nasaw · 882 pages

"Celebrated historian David Nasaw brings to life the story of Joseph Patrick Kennedy, in this, the first and only biography based on unrestricted and exclusive access to the Joseph P. Kennedy papers."--

The Kennedys: An American Drama

Peter Collier, David Horowitz · 300 pages

Take Six Girls: The Lives of the Mitford Sisters

Laura Thompson · 480 pages

King Hancock: The Radical Influence of a Moderate Founding Father

Brooke Barbier · 320 pages

Archie and Amelie: Love and Madness in the Gilded Age

Donna M. Lucey · 345 pages

The Viceroy's Daughters: The Lives of the Curzon Sisters

Anne de Courcy · 464 pages

Wedlock

Wendy Moore · 386 pages

With the death of her fabulously wealthy coal magnate father when she was just eleven, Mary Eleanor Bowes became the richest heiress in Britain. An ancestor of Queen Elizabeth II, Mary grew to be a highly educated young woman, winning acclaim as a playwright and botanist. Courted by a bevy of eager suitors, at eighteen she married the handsome but aloof ninth Earl of Strathmore in a celebrated, if

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey: The Lost Legacy of Highclere Castle

Fiona Carnarvon · 298 pages

Lady Almina and the Real Downton Abbey tells the story behind Highclere Castle, the real-life inspiration for the hit PBS show Downton Abbey, and the life of one of its most famous inhabitants, Lady Almina, the 5th Countess of Carnarvon and the basis of the fictional character Lady Cora Crawley. Drawing on a rich store of materials from the archives of Highclere Castle, including diaries, letters

Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald's Fortune and the Woman Who Gave It All Away

Lisa Napoli · 591 pages

This fall, the movie The Founder will focus the spotlight on Ray Kroc, who amassed a fortune as the chairman of McDonalds. But what about his wife, Joan, who became famous for giving that fortune away? In Ray & Joan, Lisa Napoli tells the fascinating story behind the historic couple -- a quintessentially American tale of corporate intrigue and private passion.

Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire

Amanda Foreman · 463 pages

Sex, intrigue and adultery in the world of high politics and huge wealth in late eighteenth-century England. Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire was one of the most flamboyant and influential women of the eighteenth century. The great-great-great-great aunt of Diana, Princess of Wales, she was variously a compulsive gambler, a political savante and operator of the highest order, a drug addict, an adu

Rosemary: The Hidden Kennedy Daughter

Kate Clifford Larson · 319 pages

The revelatory, poignant story of Rosemary Kennedy, the eldest and eventually secreted-away Kennedy daughter, and how her life transformed her family, its women especially, and an entire nation.

The Sisters: The Saga of the Mitford Family

Mary S. Lovell · 611 pages

"This is the story of a close, loving family splintered by the violent ideologies of Europe between the wars. Jessica was a Communist; Debo became the Duchess of Devonshire; Nancy, the eldest, was one of the best-selling novelists of her day; the ethereally beautiful Diana, married to the Fascist leader Sir Oswald Mosley and imprisoned without trial through most of World War II, was the most hate

The Rothschilds

Virginia Cowles · 304 pages

A comprehensive history of three generations of the Rothschilds, and their influence across two generations of European history.

The Mistresses of Cliveden: Three Centuries of Scandal, Power and Intrigue in an English Stately Home

Natalie Livingstone · 551 pages

"For fans of Downton Abbey comes an immersive historical epic about a lavish English manor and a dynasty of rich and powerful women who ruled the estate over three centuries of misbehavior, scandal, intrigue, and passion. Five miles from Windsor Castle, home of the royal family, sits the Cliveden estate. Overlooking the Thames, the mansion is flanked by two wings and surrounded by lavish gardens.

Nemesis: The True Story of Aristotle Onassis, Jackie O, and the Love Triangle That Brought Down the Kennedys

Peter Evans · 352 pages

The Secret Rooms: A True Gothic Mystery

Catherine Bailey · 400 pages

The Arms of Krupp: The Rise and Fall of the Industrial Dynasty that Armed Germany at War

William Manchester · 1,022 pages

Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel

John Guy · 462 pages

The House of Rothschild, Vol 1: Money's Prophets, 1798-1848

Niall Ferguson · 596 pages

This second volume of Niall Ferguson's acclaimed, landmark history of the legendary Rothschild banking dynasty concludes his myth-breaking portrait of one of the most powerful and fascinating families of modern times. With all the depth, clarity and drama with which he traced the Rothschild's ascent, Ferguson shows how their power waned as conflicts from Crimea to the Second World War repeatedly t

Ella Baker and the Black Freedom Movement: A Radical Democratic Vision

Barbara Ransby · 501 pages

John Brown, Abolitionist: The Man Who Killed Slavery, Sparked the Civil War, and Seeded Civil Rights

David S. Reynolds · 585 pages

Few historical figures are as intriguing as John Brown, the controversial Abolitionist who used armed tactics against slavery and single-handedly changed the course of American history. This brilliant biography of Brown (1800--1859) by the prize-winning critic and cultural biographer David S. Reynolds brings to life the Puritan warrior who gripped slavery by the throat and triggered the Civil War.

Magnifico: The Brilliant Life and Violent Times of Lorenzo de' Medici

Miles J. Unger · 384 pages

The Family: The Real Story of the Bush Dynasty

Kitty Kelley · 736 pages

The Bush family's rise to dominance has been marked by their masterful orchestrations of their own public image, their money and status having always afforded them a curtain of privacy. Until now. An important polemic on wealth, power, and class in America, The Family is rich in texture, probing in its psychological insight, revealing it its political and financial detail, and stunning in the patt