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The Power of Money Wisely Spent
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16266 |
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BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
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3 / 1989 |
2,686 Words |
| Author
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James Gardner
James Gardner writes on art, literature and film for a variety
of publications. |
ROTHSCHILD
The Wealth and Power of a Dynasty
Derek Wilson
Charles Scribner and Sons, 1988
490 pp., $ 27.50
When I think about the illustrious House of Rothschild, a musical analogy comes to mind. The history of that house has its thin "horizontal" melody line, represented in the fluctuations and increments over two centuries of the fortune that Mayer Amschel Rothschild established during the ancient regime, to which are added the harmonic elaborations and the rich choral clusters of the independent actions of the five branches of the family, sometimes working together, sometimes generating dissonance. Several themes recur through the collective symphony of their lives; the themes of ingenious getting and of profligate spending, of recurring anti-Semitism, and of their inevitable triumph as they assumed their places in the highest spheres of political and social power. Then there are the minor variations of sons, mothers, and wives--harmless eccentrics, certifiable lunatics, or accomplished society matrons who play hostess to some of the most brilliant politicians and men of letters of their age.
To chronicle this rich and eminent family would be a daunting task for anyone. But Derek Wilson, in his new book Rothschild: The Wealth and Power of a Dynasty, has researched his bulky subject thoroughly and presented it in a pleasing and palatable tone. It will probably prove impossible for most readers to keep track of all the doings of all the members of the five branches. Nevertheless, Wilson is prepared to satisfy one's curiosity with an account, in varying detail, of the lives of about one hundred and fifty members of the famous family.
He is at pains to stress at the outset that what he has written is not an official biography. And yet it would be hard to imagine a more official, more deferential document. Wilson is clearly impressed with the men and women whose lives he recounts. He is grateful to the eminent members of that house who consented to be interviewed. As a result, he has gone out of his way to magnify every virtue and every charitable act appurtenant to his subjects, while talking around, or making excuses for any of their financial or social faux pas over the past ten generations. This may well be one of the rare occasions when anyone has seen fit to canonize an entire family.
Yet the story is surely a fascinating one, and well
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