The New World’s earliest Jewish immigrants and their unique, little-known history: A New York Times bestseller from the author of Life at the Dakota. In 1654, twenty-three Jewish families arrived in New Amsterdam (now New York) aboard a French privateer. They were the Sephardim, members of a proud orthodox sect that had served as royal advisors and honored professionals under Moorish rule in Spain and Portugal but were then exiled from their homeland by intolerant monarchs. A small, closed, and intensely private community, the Sephardim soon established themselves as businessmen and financiers, earning great wealth. They became powerful forces in society, with some, like banker Haym Salomon, even providing financial support to George Washington’s army during the American Revolution. Yet despite its major role in the birth and growth of America, this extraordinary group has remained virtually impenetrable and unknowable to outsiders. From author of “Our Crowd” Stephen Birmingham, The Grandees delves into the lives of the Sephardim and their historic accomplishments, illuminating the insulated world of these early Americans. Birmingham reveals how these families, with descendants including poet Emma Lazarus, Barnard College founder Annie Nathan Meyer, and Supreme Court Justice Benjamin N. Cardozo, influenced—and continue to influence—American society.

The #1 New York Times bestseller that traces the rise of the Guggenheims, the Goldmans, and other families from immigrant poverty to social prominence. They immigrated to America from Germany in the nineteenth century with names like Loeb, Sachs, Seligman, Lehman, Guggenheim, and Goldman. From tenements on the Lower East Side to Park Avenue mansions, this handful of Jewish families turned small businesses into imposing enterprises and amassed spectacular fortunes. But despite possessing breathtaking wealth that rivaled the Astors and Rockefellers, they were barred by the gentile establishment from the lofty realm of “the 400,” a register of New York’s most elite, because of their religion and humble backgrounds. In response, they created their own elite “100,” a privileged society as opulent and exclusive as the one that had refused them entry. “Our Crowd” is the fascinating story of this rarefied society. Based on letters, documents, diary entries, and intimate personal remembrances of family lore by members of these most illustrious clans, it is an engrossing portrait of upper-class Jewish life over two centuries; a riveting story of the bankers, brokers, financiers, philanthropists, and business tycoons who started with nothing and turned their family names into American institutions.

Focusing on the royal chapel established by Philip II in Madrid, the essays in this richly illustrated volume offer a series of different perspectives on the development of the main court chapels of Europe. English version edited by Tess Knighton The royal chapel, in Europe as a whole and in Spain in particular, was a cultural institution where court ceremonial, politics, music and the arts were brought together in terms of space and function. The ramifications for the patronage and cultivation of the arts and the dynamic between music and the arts and the concept of kingship form the focus of the text. The phenomenon of groupings of singers, chaplainsand musicians at the service of the different European monarchies is of great significance both for the history of music, and the political and cultural history of the court in general. The royal chapel established by Philip II in Madrid was the central religious and musical institution of royal power until well into the eighteenth century, and using this as a focus, the essays in this richly illustrated volume offer a series of different perspectives onthe development of the main court chapels of Europe. These papers were delivered at the international seminar, 'La Real Capilla de Palacio en la época de los Austrias', under the auspices of the Fundación Carlos de Amberes,Madrid from 14 to 16 December, 2000. The volume is edited by Tess Knighton, Juan José Carreras and Bernardo García García, and translated by Yolanda Acker.