The Warburgs

The Twentieth-Century Odyssey of a Remarkable Jewish Family

By: Ron Chernow

Narrated by: Jonathan Reese

Bankers, philanthropists, scholars, socialites, artists, and politicians, the Warburgs stood at the pinnacle of German (and, later, German American) Jewry. They forged economic dynasties, built mansions and estates, assembled libraries, endowed charities, and advised a German kaiser and two American presidents. But their very success made the Warburgs lightning rods for anti-Semitism, and their sense of patriotism became increasingly dangerous in a Germany that had declared Jews the enemy.

Ron Chernow's hugely fascinating history is a group portrait of a clan whose members were renowned for their brilliance, culture, and personal energy yet tragically vulnerable to the dark and irrational currents of the 20th century.

©2016 Ron Chernow (P)2016 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

"Splendid.... Chernow does a wonderful job fleshing out the lives of the major characters in this family drama." ( Wall Street Journal)

"[Ron Chernow] has surpassed himself in this absorbing chronicle." ( The New Yorker)

"This is grand-scale scholarship .... It is all here, along with so much of the painful, tumultuous history of our time, all in one splendid book." (David McCullough, author of Truman)

Fascinating read

While I knew the name, I was ignorant as to the family story. Very interesting book.

Excellent history of the Warburg and the times they lived in.

This an excellent history book for serious students of the Warburg family and their times. It is not light reading but very rewarding for those who will invest their time.

Fascinating story

Fascinating walk thru 19-20th century as an unusual family dealt with the Holocaust and life after.
Reader could use some help pronouncing German and Israeli names but was otherwise A+.

Awesome!

A gripping and spectacular story of a great families supreme and continuous effort to remain viable!

Awful audio production

Pronunciation! The narrator of this story sounds like a 1940s radio announcer. He’s robotic.

When he pronounces Chaim he says “ki im”.

The dogged determination of the entire family over so many decades.

What I enjoyed most were the intricate details which is so characteristic of Chernov’s books. This is the sixth book by him that I’ve read. My only issue is that I “expected” that the Warburgs would be more involved in American banking, either in conflict or in concert with the other notables of the time. But fascinating nonetheless.

The Warburgs

The narrator’s pronunciations. I’m a southerner who at times butchers the English language. However, I realized too often the wrong person was chosen to narrate. Too bad since the information was outstanding.

Great Story!

Chernow writes a fascinating account of a fascinating family. The read is interesting all the way through and the 2023 reader is left to wonder about the family since the book’s 1993 publication.

The Warburgs of Hamburg, Germany

A fascinating and exhaustive recounting of Germany’s great Jewish banking family of Hamburg, both pre-Nazi Germany and the years during and after the Third Reich, the challenges presented by anti-Semitism in Germany and the United States. This book was an education. Ron Chernow turns out another historical masterpiece.

Terrible reader!

The story of the Warburgs is fascinating, compelling. Unfortunately, the reader has made rendered it almost impossible to listen to through his terrible mispronunciation of common words and a strange emphasis which ends most sentences with and urgency not intended by the author.
I did, however, manage to struggle through to end.