by Cary Reich
First published 1996
Cary Reich chronicles how Nelson A. Rockefeller transformed inherited privilege into political ambition. Among America's wealthiest dynasties, the Rockefellers wielded unmatched influence, but Nelson refused to simply coast on family legacy. He defied his imperious grandfather John D. Rockefeller and his intimidating father John Jr., who had established clear boundaries for family behavior. Nelson shattered the family taboo against political involvement, driven by an insatiable hunger for power that his cheerful public persona concealed. Reich traces Nelson's calculated moves from wresting control of Rockefeller Center from his father's associates to transforming the Museum of Modern Art into a global institution. The biography reveals how Nelson leveraged a modest wartime bureaucratic role to influence an entire continent's affairs, then used sheer willpower to reshape the United Nations conference and alter history's trajectory. Drawing from unprecedented access to Rockefeller family archives, FBI files, and over three hundred interviews, Reich exposes the Machiavellian strategist behind the sunny optimist.
Genres: biography, 20th-century, political-science, american-history
Vibes: intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: family-secrets, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Rockefeller Center, Museum of Modern Art, United Nations
Period: Wartime
896 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday