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candacesiegle_greedyreader's review
4.0
The Sassoons
Today, Vidal Sassoon may be the only Sassoon people have heard about (some may know the poet Siegfried Sassoon) but in the 19th century they family was one of the wealthiest in the world. A family of astute and brilliant traders, they ended up with nothing after the takeover of the Communists in China.
James Sassoon tells the story of his family and how difficult it is to pass wealth from generation to generation. David Sassoon was a leader in the Baghdadi Jewish community, building a thriving business and serving as treasurer to pashas. But prejudice was building against Jews in Iraq and the Sassoons moved to Mumbai in the early 19th century. There, they established massive businesses in opium and textiles. David Sassoon was a brilliant businessman, earning the esteem of the British (even though he spoke little English) and becoming a civic-minded pillar of the business community.
He focused on China and Hong King, sending several of his sons to England for school. When he died things began to unravel as his sons began to squabble and the network of personal connections he had built frayed. By the 20th century his descendants were part of the British social world, more interested in playing polo than keeping a finger on the pulse of world trade.
Most of “The Sassoons” is pretty interesting, showing us how businesses worked in the Orthodox world of Iraq and India, how veering from that path brought disaster. James Sassoon’s writing style is spare and frank, and the book could have benefitted from more personal stories about the family, especially David. The feeling is that we don’t know much about these people even though they wrote a gazillion letters, every day, all the time, to everyone. These were written in a Baghdadi Jewish dialect which might be hard to decipher, but it’s hard to imagine there’s so little source material about such a prominent family.
Still, it’s a look at the rise and fall of a powerful family, plus the glimpse at the working of 19th century Indian and middle-eastern commerce.
Today, Vidal Sassoon may be the only Sassoon people have heard about (some may know the poet Siegfried Sassoon) but in the 19th century they family was one of the wealthiest in the world. A family of astute and brilliant traders, they ended up with nothing after the takeover of the Communists in China.
James Sassoon tells the story of his family and how difficult it is to pass wealth from generation to generation. David Sassoon was a leader in the Baghdadi Jewish community, building a thriving business and serving as treasurer to pashas. But prejudice was building against Jews in Iraq and the Sassoons moved to Mumbai in the early 19th century. There, they established massive businesses in opium and textiles. David Sassoon was a brilliant businessman, earning the esteem of the British (even though he spoke little English) and becoming a civic-minded pillar of the business community.
He focused on China and Hong King, sending several of his sons to England for school. When he died things began to unravel as his sons began to squabble and the network of personal connections he had built frayed. By the 20th century his descendants were part of the British social world, more interested in playing polo than keeping a finger on the pulse of world trade.
Most of “The Sassoons” is pretty interesting, showing us how businesses worked in the Orthodox world of Iraq and India, how veering from that path brought disaster. James Sassoon’s writing style is spare and frank, and the book could have benefitted from more personal stories about the family, especially David. The feeling is that we don’t know much about these people even though they wrote a gazillion letters, every day, all the time, to everyone. These were written in a Baghdadi Jewish dialect which might be hard to decipher, but it’s hard to imagine there’s so little source material about such a prominent family.
Still, it’s a look at the rise and fall of a powerful family, plus the glimpse at the working of 19th century Indian and middle-eastern commerce.
renaplays's review
4.0
Vivid telling of a complex family making sense of being phenomenally wealthy, while also outsiders during the Gilded Age
nanikeeva's review
1.0
very dry and unengaging, especially compared to other books on the sassoons. the opium apologist tone doesn't help either.
xxstefaniereadsxx's review
informative
inspiring
slow-paced
4.0
This book takes a deep dive into the Sassoon family. The family originated with Sassoon ben Salih, who, along with his family, were the treasurers of the pashas of Baghdad. He had two sons, David and Joseph, who ultimately wound up leaving the area due to political issues. David wound up in Bombay for a while, mixing himself up in the opium trade, and raking in the dough. Despite the fact that he made his money in an unfortunate way, he did a lot of philanthropy work. His drug money built schools, hospitals, and museums, providing jobs and resources for many people. David and Joseph expanded not only their businesses, but their families. Each generation had all kinds of business deals, resulting in the cementing of this family as one of the richest and most influential families of the time. Several members were involved in politics and rubbed elbows with Edward VII, Prince of Wales.
The author of this book, Joseph Sassoon, is a distant relative of the original Sassoon family. He has has a pretty amazing career all on his own. In addition to being an accomplish author, he is currently the director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and Professor of History and Political Economy at Georgetown University. He is also an associate at St. Antony's College in Oxford. He is fluent in several languages, which helped him in his research into the family, as a lot of documents were in various languages. In addition to learning about this family, I also enjoyed learning about this author. In a time were anti-Jewish sentiment is on the rise and loud, it is nice to be able to support people in the community and learn about different aspects of Jewish history. I have to admit most of my knowledge of Jewish history comes from whatever I have learned as a World War II history major, and not from other sources or people. I am absolutely going to look into more of this type of material, because there is a long, rich history that I am missing out on knowing about. The author did an interview, which I looked up after I finished this book, and one of the things that he said he hoped people would take away from this book is that migrant people are human beings that often leave their homes with next to nothing and fight their way up from the bottom. That is something that a lot of people could do with considering.
This book was amazing. The only Sassoon name that I had ever heard prior to seeing this book was Vidal Sassoon, and, as it turns out, he was only distantly related to the family that this book focuses on. (He was related to them through his father, David Sassoon, who resided in London. His mother was an Ashkenazi Jew, which is also a very neat fact.) I had no idea about the work the members of this family put in to make a name for themselves, and certainly had never heard of the "Rothschilds Of The East" as they were often called. Obviously, the author has a lot of first hand information to go with, but the book was exceptionally well researched. To be a book about family dynasties, it was certainly not dry or tedious to read. I wish that I would have gotten to this book sooner. It was a lot of fun learning about all of these people and the influences they had in business and society that can still be seen today.
The author of this book, Joseph Sassoon, is a distant relative of the original Sassoon family. He has has a pretty amazing career all on his own. In addition to being an accomplish author, he is currently the director of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies and Professor of History and Political Economy at Georgetown University. He is also an associate at St. Antony's College in Oxford. He is fluent in several languages, which helped him in his research into the family, as a lot of documents were in various languages. In addition to learning about this family, I also enjoyed learning about this author. In a time were anti-Jewish sentiment is on the rise and loud, it is nice to be able to support people in the community and learn about different aspects of Jewish history. I have to admit most of my knowledge of Jewish history comes from whatever I have learned as a World War II history major, and not from other sources or people. I am absolutely going to look into more of this type of material, because there is a long, rich history that I am missing out on knowing about. The author did an interview, which I looked up after I finished this book, and one of the things that he said he hoped people would take away from this book is that migrant people are human beings that often leave their homes with next to nothing and fight their way up from the bottom. That is something that a lot of people could do with considering.
This book was amazing. The only Sassoon name that I had ever heard prior to seeing this book was Vidal Sassoon, and, as it turns out, he was only distantly related to the family that this book focuses on. (He was related to them through his father, David Sassoon, who resided in London. His mother was an Ashkenazi Jew, which is also a very neat fact.) I had no idea about the work the members of this family put in to make a name for themselves, and certainly had never heard of the "Rothschilds Of The East" as they were often called. Obviously, the author has a lot of first hand information to go with, but the book was exceptionally well researched. To be a book about family dynasties, it was certainly not dry or tedious to read. I wish that I would have gotten to this book sooner. It was a lot of fun learning about all of these people and the influences they had in business and society that can still be seen today.
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