Wall Street Journal: A consistently hypnotic multigenerational biography

“With the appearance of Andrew Meier’s voluminous and consistently hypnotic multigenerational biography, Morgenthau, it is now possible to delve even deeper into this only-in-America dynasty: its origins in Germany, its fall from, and later return, to wealth and influence, and its scions’ unshakable commitment to public service….

A former Time Magazine correspondent and Russia specialist, Mr. Meier draws the reader into the family’s private and professional lives with verve, a marvelous ear for anecdote and a gift for cherry-picking from his prodigious research….

One would imagine that dignity, selflessness and inexhaustibility can neither endure in a family nor engage a reader for nearly 900 pages. Mr. Meier proves otherwise. And his magisterial book vividly reminds us of the days when immigrants yearned not to preserve ancestral identity but to live the American dream. As Henry Sr. proudly told a group of fellow Jewish elites: “I am the amalgam of what’s been produced by putting a little boy in that [melting] pot and mixing him with a part of yourselves.” The same can be said of all the remarkable Morgenthaus.”

Harold Holzer, “'Morgenthau' Review: The Men in the Arena,” Wall Street Journal, December 9, 2022 [paywall].