The Rise of the Nouveaux Riches

Book excerpt: There have been many books about Victorian and Edwardian houses, but this is the first to concentrate on the taste of the nouveaux riches. Not just the rich but the very rich: those who grew immensely wealthy in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution. Cotton, shipping, steel, real estate, diamonds, chemicals, banking, the stock market -- that was how they made their money. But what did they do with it? Where and how did they live? J. Mordaunt Crook, one of Britain's leading architectural historians, describes the houses of the richest of the new rich -- the Rothschilds, the Guinnesses, the Beits and the Brasseys, the Barings, the Wernhers, the Tennants, the Sassoons -- and explains the economic and social context that sustained their extraordinary lifestyles. In effect, he tells the story of the remaking of the British ruling class. Enhanced with numerous photos as well as excerpts from novels, diaries, and memoirs.