At their peak in the early twentieth century, the Guggenheims' mining fortune made them one of the wealthiest families in America, and the richest Jewish family in the world after the Rothschilds. Influential members of New York's Our Crowd, Swiss immigrant Meyer Guggenheim and his seven sons built a mighty business empire that eventually expanded into the fields of publishing, aviation, and even horse racing. But the cherished family solidarity that was the foundation of their remarkable enterprise would crumble in subsequent generations -- along with the clan's wealth, power, and religious faith -- even as the fabled Guggenheim name took on a dazzlingly new and enduring importance in the realm of bold artistic innovation.

Irwin Unger won the Pulitzer Prize in history for The Greenback Era. Together with his wife, journalist Debi Unger, they have collaborated on many books, including LBJ: A Life.