The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune | Paperback | The story of the Astors is an extraordinary but true tale of ambition, invention, destruction, and reinvention—and of cunning, determination, hard work, hubris, infighting, and greed. One of the wealthiest men to have ever lived, John Jacob Astor arrived in New York in 1783 and built a fortune through a ruthless expansion of his beaver-trapping business, which he grew into an empire through real estate that enriched him at the expense of Manhattan’s poorest residents. In later generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New York society—Caroline  Schermerhorn Astor essentially invented it—and got into the hospitality business with the legendary Waldorf-Astoria hotel, among others.