Andrew Meier with Harold Holzer at the Roosevelt House
Andrew Meier in conversation with Harold Holzer, Jonathan F. Fanton Director of Roosevelt House at the Roosevelt House, February 6, 2023.
Roosevelt House is especially proud to host this discussion of the definitive Morgenthau family biography. This historic building, once the Roosevelt family home, served as FDR’s transition headquarters in 1932-33. And here the President-elect met frequently with his friend, advisor, and future Cabinet member Henry Morgenthau Jr. to explore the financial reforms that would be introduced in the New Deal.
To permanently honor the longstanding connection between the Morgenthau family and Roosevelt House, Hunter College President Jennifer J. Raab, in 2018, formally dedicated the building’s west staircase to the memory of Henry’s son Robert M. Morgenthau, who served as Manhattan District Attorney for 35 years. “The Morgenthau name,” she said at the time, “—which is joined forever in American history to that of the Roosevelts—should be a permanent part of this house.”
Wesleyan Connection: Q&A With Andrew Meier ’85, Author of “Morgenthau”
“What is it about the process of ‘chasing ghosts’ that animates you as a writer and as a journalist?
I think part of it is, going back to when I was a young kid, playing detective and trying to find the clues to piece together what really happened from just shards of evidence. Something is broken or something is missing. As a researcher you begin to see the places where (something is missing), whether it’s in an archival trail or in an interview. What does it mean? I take that as a starting point to challenge the story, interrogate documents, and read between what’s left out.”
Steve Scarpa, “Q&A With Andrew Meier ’85, Author of ‘Morgenthau,’” Wesleyan Connection, February 1, 2023.
The Jerusalem Post: The story of New York City royalty
“In Morgenthau, journalist Andrew Meier draws on exclusive access to family archives to provide a magisterial, informative, engrossing, largely laudatory chronicle of an American dynasty.”
Glenn C. Altschuler, “'Morgenthau': The story of New York City royalty - review,” The Jerusalem Post, January 21, 2023.
The Times of Israel: Interview
“Much of Morgenthau: Power, Privilege, and the Rise of an American Dynasty is a New York-based story. The Morgenthaus were, after all, ‘New Yorkers to the core,’ as Meier puts it.
But the author also stresses how the family, over several generations, continued to lend its enormous power and privilege towards worthy — and sometimes unpopular — causes that looked beyond their native city, which they believed would ultimately create lasting historical change in the sphere of national and international politics.”
JP O’Malley, “How the ‘Jewish Kennedys’ helped save 200,000 Jews in WWII and delayed Iranian nukes,” The Times of Israel, January 21, 2023.
HEC MEdia: Author Andrew Meier's "Morgenthau"
“In his epic portrait of this American family, journalist Andrew Meier goes back four generations of the Morgenthau family, detailing their influence and power from daily life in New York City to their role in shaping American history. Meier’s “Morgenthau: Power, Privilege, and The Rise of an American Dynasty,” is lengthy, but with short chapters and reads like a novel.”
Victoria Babu hosts Andrew on the Left Bank Books Favorite Author Series.
Victoria Babu, “Author Andrew Meier’s ‘Morgenthau,’” HEC Media, January 4, 2023.
MOMENT: An American dynasty gets its due
“[T]o relate the story of four generations of Morgenthaus, our reviewer Robert Siegel says, ‘is to relate a century and a half of New York City and American history.’ Siegel plunged undeterred into this magisterial thousand-word-plus biography, and you should too.”
“12 Books That Made Us Think,” MOMENT Magazine, December 30, 2022.