THE WOMEN OF ROTHSCHILD

A multigenerational portrait of a powerful family.

From its origins in a Jewish ghetto in Frankfurt, the family of Meyer Anshel Rothschild (1744-1812) and his wife, Guttle Schnapper (1753-1849), spawned an extraordinary financial dynasty that spread throughout the world. Since Meyer’s will specifically excluded his “daughters and sons-in-law and their heirs” from any share in his businesses, histories of the influential family have focused almost exclusively on men—an omission that historian Livingstone rectifies in a richly textured narrative. Drawing on archives, memoirs, and published sources, the author focuses on the British branch of the family, examining eight generations of Rothschild women whose influence reached into politics, literature, social reform, Zionism, science, and the arts. Although they did not participate directly in the family’s financial strategies, a few served as confidantes and advisers to their husbands; others exercised deft political machinations in gatherings at their sumptuous country houses and London salons. The family’s immense wealth made them welcome in British aristocracy—or, at least, tolerated by some of its more virulently antisemitic members. The wives knew that “as German Jews in a Christian society and women within a fiercely patriarchal family,” they needed to act judiciously. Despite servants and luxury, for most of them, being a Rothschild wife “was stressful and thankless work.” One husband referred to his wife as “an essential piece of furniture.” Livingstone recounts sustaining friendships among some of the women, rivalries that erupted among others, and illnesses, deaths, betrayals, and sorrow that befell many. They were scrutinized within the family (when they married outside of the faith, for example) and subjected to gossip. If being a Rothschild gave them privileges, the author clearly reveals their vulnerability to tumultuous events—from the French Revolution through 20th-century wars—and the shattering social and cultural changes that affected each Rothschild wife, daughter, niece, and granddaughter.

An engaging, authoritative, and refreshingly intimate history.