‘The best short biography of the year… a tour de force.’ Ian McIntyre, The Times
By the middle of the nineteenth century the five Rothschild brothers – in London, Frankfurt, Paris, Vienna and Naples – controlled the finances of Europe more closely than any family ever had before, and were a byword for the power which great wealth can bring with it.
But the man who founded this dynasty has always been an elusive figure who generally merits no more than a few pages in books which concentrate on the achievements of his offspring.
Amos Elon’s wonderful biography Founder gives us, in as complete a form as possible, the life of this remarkable man for the first time.
Amos Elon has spent most of his adult life in Jerusalem. A frequent essayist, lecturer and critic who is well known for his articles in the ‘New Yorker’ and ‘New York Review of Books’, he is the author of the bestseller ‘The Israelis: ‘Founder’ s and Sons’, ‘Flight into Egypt’, ‘Herzl: A Biography’ and ‘Jerusalem: City of Mirrors’ (also published by Flamingo).